The judge of the Audiencia Nacional, José Luis Calama, has rejected the rogatory commission to Saudi Arabia requested by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to clarify the origin of the jewels found in his office last May 19. The decision stops, for now, the international route that the former president had asked to activate.
Calama, in an order dated October 27, 2026, maintains that the request "lacks, at present, a minimum objective element of corroboration" that allows appreciating its usefulness, necessity, and relevance. The magistrate adds that Zapatero has "direct means" to try to obtain corroboration of the facts he asserts.
Zapatero's version clashes with the judge's evidentiary filter
The former president requested this rogatory commission to prove that the jewels were given to him by the then monarch of Saudi Arabia as a sign of personal attention during the official visit to Spain in June 2007, when he was president of the Government. That is his explanation, but the judge emphasizes that, to date, this statement does not have sufficient objective support to sustain such a far-reaching proceeding.
The order states that the request "is not aimed at completing or contrasting a hypothesis that already has some degree of objective corroboration", but rather at "constructing ex novo the evidentiary support of a mere statement made by the investigated party himself". With this formulation, the instructor distinguishes between contrasting a version already supported by evidence and building from scratch the basis of proof that supports it.
The resolution makes it clear that, until this minimum objective element appears, the rogatory commission does not pass the filter of usefulness, necessity, and relevance required by the court. The refusal neither validates nor invalidates Zapatero's version about the origin of the jewels, but it does mark the procedural limit to follow this line of investigation for now.