Spanish prosecutor seeks acquittal for Begoña Gómez as EU probe advances

The Spanish Prosecutor's Office has formally requested the acquittal of Begoña Gómez, wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, along with her assistant Cristina Álvarez and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, concluding that no crime was committed in their activities related to a university chair at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). Source: ABC.es; Infobae

The prosecution request

In a 25-page submission to Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, the prosecutor argued that the three defendants received no remuneration or benefit from the chair and exerted no pressure on companies for sponsorship. Source: El Confidencial Key points:

• Begoña Gómez earned €0 from her role as co-director of the chair. Source: El Español
• The software created for the chair was not exploited for profit, and UCM suffered no patrimonial loss. Source: Infobae
• The prosecutor described the actions as "not constituting a criminal offense," invoking the principle "no crime, no perpetrator." Source: El Confidencial Despite the prosecutor's stance, Judge Peinado ordered the case to trial by jury in June, and the popular accusation led by Hazte Oír is seeking prison sentences of up to 24 years for Gómez. Source: ABC.es

The parallel EU investigation

Meanwhile, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) is investigating three contracts worth over €12 million awarded to Barrabés's companies by Red.es, the public entity. Source: El Confidencial Gómez wrote letters of recommendation for two of those contracts. Source: El Español The focus is whether Red.es officials manipulated evaluation criteria to favor Barrabés, with internal emails suggesting instructions to lower competitors' scores. Source: El Mundo The popular accusation has asked Judge Peinado to summon Gómez as a witness in a separate probe into one of the contracts, though she is not currently a suspect in that strand. Source: El Español