It is important to remember that on the table are the crimes of influence peddling, corruption in business, misappropriation, embezzlement and intrusion. Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government; Cristina Álvarez, her advisor; and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés must appear before the courts of Plaza de Castilla on April 1, in the middle of Easter holidays. Judge Peinado has summoned them with the aim of informing them that the case continues its course through the jury procedure.
According to the Jury Court Law, the crime of embezzlement must be tried by this type of court, composed of nine citizens and two alternates. It would be the citizenry that, in that case, would make the final decision on their guilt or innocence, while the magistrate would be responsible for giving legal form to the verdict.
This decision is striking, given that the Provincial Court of Madrid rejected on February 23 the order to transform preliminary proceedings into a jury trial procedure due to lack of motivation. In essence, the Court asked Peinado to explain the reasons for said decision, although it did not rule out this possibility.
Last Friday, the investigating judge again summoned the parties for April 1st at 12:00 in the morning and justifies this decision in the existing connection between the different crimes investigated, that is, for Peinado, the crime of embezzlement must be judged along with the rest of the criminal provisions:
He points out that Pedro Sánchez's wife would have taken advantage of her “institutional position”. The magistrate considers that there was “a radical change in Gómez's career” , with different professional promotions since Sánchez was appointed president of the Government. According to the judge, this proximity would have been used by Gómez to promote the professorship in the environment of the Complutense University of Madrid. For this reason, among other arguments, Peinado maintains that all the crimes are related.
The parties must attend the summons, although it is possible that the investigated do not appear personally and only their lawyers do so, as already happened on the previous occasion.
And now what will happen?
It is foreseeable that the defenses will appeal again before the Provincial Court of Madrid, which must decide if the investigated parties finally face a trial with a jury or, on the contrary, a court or tribunal formed by magistrates that determines if Begoña Gómez, Cristina Álvarez and Juan Carlos Barrabés have committed any crime.
