Begona Gomez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, has sued the judge presiding over the case in which she is accused of corruption, her defense attorneys said. She filed the complaint with the Higher Court of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, alleging abuse in the disclosure of confidential details of the trial. Her husband had previously sued the judge.
Lawyers quoted by Spanish media said that – according to Begona Gomez – the judge in charge of her case Juan Carlos Peinado was found to have exceeded his authority.
Commentators note that Gomez has acted in the same manner as her husband, Prime Minister Sanchez, who on Monday sued Judge Peinado through Spain's State Bar (AE), accusing him of acting outside his authority in investigating a corruption case involving Gomez.
Sanchez's lawsuit against the judge was filed hours after the prime minister refused to testify in Peinado's presence at Madrid's Moncloa Palace, the residence and headquarters of the head of government.
Sanchez said he refused to testify because the hearing would harm the prestige of the prime minister's office. Judge Peinado, on the other hand, explained that he “only wanted to hear the declarations of the accused woman's husband.”
Pedro Sanchez and Begona GomezMIGUEL ANGEL MOLINA/EFE/PAP/EPA
Prime Minister's wife accused of corruption
The key allegations against Sanchez's wife, who is the head of the master's degree program in management in competitive social transformation at the Complutense University of Madrid, revolve around the case of the consulting firm of Carlos Barrabes, who has been supporting the department headed by Begona Gomez for years.
Read: Who is Begona Gomez?
According to the indictment, the entrepreneur, thanks to his acquaintance with Prime Minister Sanchez's wife, was supposed to have won several public competitions. Barrabes denies the corruption allegations, but confirmed that he met not only with Begona Gomez, but also with Pedro Sanchez. One of these meetings was supposed to have taken place at the headquarters of the Spanish government.
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