Judge Pedraz postpones the cloning of Juan Manuel Serrano's mobile phone until August 18 within the framework of the 'Leire case'

The investigation of the so-called 'Leire case' will have to wait a few more days for one of the pending proceedings concerning Juan Manuel Serrano. The judge of the Audiencia Nacional, Santiago Pedraz, has set August 18 for the appearance of the former president of Correos and former chief of staff of Pedro Sánchez in the PSOE to carry out the cloning of his mobile phone.

The proceeding was initially scheduled for August 5 and aimed to verify the copy of the device that the magistrate had entrusted to the Civil Guard, incorporate it into the judicial procedure or, if necessary, perform a new cloning in the presence of Serrano himself.

The change of date responds to a request made by the investigated party himself, after which Pedraz has issued a new order establishing the new summons.

The indictment that opened a new phase of the case

Serrano was indicted last Friday, July 10, within the so-called 'Leire case', the investigation that seeks to clarify an alleged plot to influence judicial procedures affecting the Government and the PSOE. The decision comes after the Prosecutor's Office backed the request made by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, which had requested that he be given the status of investigated and that the analysis of the content of his mobile phone be authorized.

Along with the indictment, the judge has acceded to that second request, in which UCO agents will be able to dump and examine Serrano's mobile phone as part of the proceedings opened in the case.

The meeting in Ferraz, "turning point" of the plot

The UCO has compiled in a new report, to which EFE has had access, a series of communications between the former president of Correos and former chief of staff of Pedro Sánchez, Juan Manuel Serrano, and the former socialist militant Leire Díez after the publication of the letter in which Sánchez announced on April 24, 2024, that he was taking a few days to reflect on his continuity at the head of the Government after the indictment of his wife, Begoña Gómez.

According to the investigators, just one day after that letter was made public, Serrano and Díez, who had previously worked as head of communication at Correos, agreed to go to the PSOE national headquarters, on Ferraz street. There, on April 26, they participated in a meeting with the then socialist Organization Secretary, Santos Cerdán. A meeting that the National Court judge in charge of the investigation considers the "turning point" of the alleged plot that sought to influence different judicial procedures.

During that meeting, Leire Díez and the businessman Javier Pérez Dolset would have put on the table several audios recorded in August 2014. In those conversations, the former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and the former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez appeared talking about the sauna business linked to the father-in-law of the Prime Minister.

The UCO also highlights that, two days after that meeting, Serrano and Díez began to use the Signal messaging application, considered more secure. The report states that on April 29, coinciding with the day Sánchez was to announce whether or not he would continue at the head of the Executive, both exchanged messages about the political situation. In that context, and referring to the president, they pointed out that "this man must be helped"