The judge of the Audiencia Nacional Santiago Pedraz has taken control of the investigation opened for alleged maneuvers directed against members of the judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the Civil Guard, the case investigating former militant socialist Leire Díez and the former Secretary of Organization of the PSOE Santos Cerdán. In this context, the magistrate has summoned Juan Manuel Serrano, who was chief of staff to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and subsequently president of Correos, for tomorrow to carry out a procedure related to his mobile phone.
In this regard, Serrano will have to appear for the "verification" of his device's cloning. Should the previously performed procedure not be validated, the judge contemplates carrying out a new dump of the mobile's content. The procedure has been appealed by the former chief of staff, although Pedraz maintains his summons for this August, despite the non-working nature of this period in the courts.
The action is part of Pedraz's decision to concentrate in the Audiencia Nacional the investigations that until now had been carried out separately. The magistrate has ordered the incorporation into his procedure of the proceedings carried out for more than a year by Arturo Zamarriego, head of Instruction Court number 9 of Madrid, after he agreed to inhibit himself and remit the investigation to the Audiencia Nacional at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Zamarriego had opened an investigation in the summer of 2025 into Leire Díez, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and journalist Pere Rusiñol for possible crimes of bribery and influence peddling. The case led by Pedraz has a broader scope and also includes former SEPI president Vicente Fernández and businessman Antxon Alonso. The investigations were subsequently expanded to include former PSOE Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán, former Andalusian counselor Gaspar Zarrías, and socialist manager Ana María Fuentes. The investigation seeks to clarify a possible plot aimed at discrediting or halting judicial procedures affecting the Government of Pedro Sánchez and people in his circle.
The 'Leire Díez case' is concentrated in the Audiencia Nacional
The investigation opened a few months ago by judge Arturo Zamarriego in Madrid into the alleged maneuvers of Leire Díez against judges, prosecutors, and members of the Civil Guard will now be entirely in the hands of the magistrate of the Audiencia Nacional Santiago Pedraz. Zamarriego has finally accepted the inhibition proposed by Pedraz and will send the proceedings he had developed until now to the procedure directed by the judge of the Audiencia Nacional.
The decision means that Pedraz will concentrate in a single case the investigations related to events he considers closely linked. The magistrate had requested to also take over the investigation opened in Madrid, understanding that there is a relevant connection with the case he is instructing in the Audiencia Nacional about an alleged plot aimed at obstructing or discrediting judicial procedures that would affect the PSOE and the Government. In that investigation, the then socialist Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán is named, while Díez appears as one of the people who would have coordinated certain actions.
Zamarriego's case began as a result of two complaints filed by prosecutors Ignacio Stampa and José Grinda and led the judge to investigate Díez, businessman Javier Pérez Dolset, and journalist Pere Rusiñol. The magistrate found indications that the three could have acted in a coordinated manner to obtain compromising or irregular information about those responsible for the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
According to the proceedings carried out in Madrid, this information could have subsequently been used to try to harm or even nullify certain judicial investigations considered relevant for affecting politicians or businessmen. Within the framework of these investigations, the meetings that Díez would have held with prosecutors Stampa and Grinda were also analyzed, in which she allegedly would have requested information and proposed economic considerations.
The procedure opened in the Madrid courts also originated from a complaint by Hazte Oír related to a meeting between Díez and Alejandro Hamlyn, a businessman investigated for alleged hydrocarbon fraud. The organization maintains that during that meeting certain favors would have been offered to the businessman in exchange for information.
The Prosecutor's Office had shown itself to be in favor of the Madrid procedure being transferred to the Audiencia Nacional. In its brief, the Public Prosecutor's Office argued that the investigation led by Pedraz has a broader scope, both due to the number of facts analyzed and the number of people investigated, and that the possible legal classification of the crimes would also be of greater severity.
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