Madrid, April 13, (dpa/GNA) – The wife of Spain’s leftist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is set to go on trial after an investigating judge, proposed bringing charges against her on Monday.
Judge Juan Carlos Peinado concluded his investigation, and recommended that María Begoña Gómez Fernández be charged with corruption, influence peddling, misappropriation of funds and trademark violations.
Prosecutors typically follow such judicial recommendations. No date has yet been set for the trial. The 55-year-old denies the allegations.
During the investigation, prosecutors had called for the case to be dropped, citing what they described as weak evidence.
Gómez’s defence accused Peinado of acting on political motives and harming the reputation of the judiciary, El País reported. The government rejected the allegations and described the case as part of a politically motivated campaign.
The probe was launched, following a complaint by the far-right group Manos Limpias, which accuses Gómez of using her proximity to the prime minister to secure economic advantages, including in public funding programmes, sponsorship deals and state-backed loans.
Sánchez’s left-wing minority government has been under pressure for some time due to a raft of corruption investigations. Last June, the prime minister publicly apologized to citizens for the scandals within his Socialist Party.
GNA