The Provincial Court of Madrid has corrected an investigating judge and has ordered the dismissal of the criminal case opened against the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, for an alleged crime of perjury before a Senate commission within the framework of the so-called ‘Koldo case’.
In a car, the magistrates of the higher court have ruled that they **do not admit the complaint filed by the organization HazteOír** against Cerdán, who accused him of having lied in April 2024 during his appearance before the Senate investigation committee. The Court shares the view of the Prosecutor's Office, which had already maintained that **the reported facts "lack criminal relevance"** and that there is no appearance of a crime in the statements of the former socialist leader.The judges have applied a doctrine similar to the one the Supreme Court set out in 2023, when it rejected a lawsuit for perjury against the then senator Alicia Sánchez‑Camacho, considering that “reluctances or inaccuracies” are not enough to constitute a criminal offense if there is no substantial alteration of the truth.
The complaint by HazteOír had been initially admitted by a judge in Madrid after the presentation of a police report in which possible discrepancies were pointed out between what Cerdán declared and other evidence provided. However, the Court has concluded that these differences do not, in themselves, constitute perjury liable to criminal sanction, and has annulled the progress of the process at this point.
This file represents a brake on a specific piece of the broad judicial context surrounding the so-called 'Koldo case', although other investigations into possible crimes such as bribery or influence peddling involving Cerdán continue in higher courts and are not affected by this resolution.
