Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has launched proceedings against a judge investigating his wife for alleged corruption and influence peddling, accusing him of abuse of office.
News of the proceedings emerged on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after Sanchez exercised his legal right not to testify in a case involving the business activities of his wife, Begonja Gomez, the Guardian reports.
Gomez is under investigation for alleged corruption and influence peddling following a complaint by pressure group Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-proclaimed union with right-wing ties, which has a long history of using the courts to pursue political goals. Manos Limpias accused Gomez of using her influence as the prime minister's wife to secure sponsors for a university master's program she ran.
Although prosecutors in Madrid have asked for the case to be dismissed for lack of evidence - and a report by the Guardia Civil police force found no indication of criminal activity by Gomez - the investigation continues.
Despite describing the allegations against his wife as baseless, politically motivated slander, Sanchez offered to provide written evidence to Judge Juan Carlos Peinado. But Peinado insisted that Sanchez be questioned in person at his official residence, the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, where the prime minister exercised his right not to testify in a case involving a family member.
Early Tuesday afternoon, the Spanish government announced that the state attorney had filed a lawsuit against Peinado for alleged abuse of office. At the heart of the complaint is what it calls Peinado's "unfair and deliberate" decision to insist on testifying in person in Moncloa, rather than allowing Sanchez to submit written evidence, as the law allows senior officials. Peinado said Sanchez had to testify in person in Moncloa because he wanted to question him as Gomez's wife, not as prime minister.
"This is not an attempt to suggest that someone should not be investigated in our legal system, it is about the way the investigation is conducted. In this particular case, the investigation is directed towards goals that are far from judicial, and in such a way that decisions are made not for the summary, but for the effect of exaggeration," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims that Peinado cannot seek to question Sanchez only in her capacity as Gomez's husband, because the entire investigation is based on what Gomez allegedly did as the prime minister's wife.
"One person cannot be singled out, and it cannot be argued that a person will be questioned as a husband when the defining characteristic of the investigation, as we have said, is the fact that the husband of the person under investigation is the prime minister," the lawsuit states.
It also emphasizes that the lawsuit "is not an attack on the judiciary" but an attempt to protect the prime minister's position from arbitrary legal attacks.
"This lawsuit aims to respect the independence of the judiciary, but also to defend it against the practices of those who act from political motives and outside the law," said Spanish government spokeswoman Pilar Alegría.
Sanchez, who described the case against his wife as "an ugly set-up driven by right-wing groups behind the lawsuit," took a five-day hiatus from his public duties in late April while he considered whether to stay in office for what he called "the operation harassment and abuse" that he and his wife suffer. He decided to remain prime minister.
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