The controversial judge Peinado consults if Begoña Gómez can leave Spain and HazteOír warns of a "Brexit" escape

The questioned judge Juan Carlos Peinado has asked the parties to comment before deciding whether to allow Begoña Gómez to travel outside of Spain between July 7 and 10. The wife of the Prime Minister requests to temporarily recover her passport to accompany Pedro Sánchez to the NATO summit in Ankara and then attend her daughter's graduation in London.

The decision comes with the calendar upon them. Peinado gave the parties three days to present allegations and the trip is scheduled for Tuesday. If any notification is computed from this Wednesday, the deadline can be extended until Monday, July 6, just a few hours before departure. The magistrate will have to decide quickly whether to authorize the temporary return of the passport or maintain the prohibition of leaving the country.

Gómez handed over her passport on June 24 at the Plaza de Castilla courthouses. Peinado imposed this precautionary measure after agreeing to open oral proceedings against her, her advisor Cristina Álvarez, and businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés. The judge noted "risk of flight" and added a statement that opened another controversy: he maintained that Sánchez's wife's escorts could facilitate an escape. That phrase provoked a complaint from the Interior Ministry and ended with the CGPJ opening disciplinary proceedings against the magistrate.

The Government has defended Gómez's request. Minister Félix Bolaños assured this Wednesday that the request is "perfectly justified" and that this type of authorization is common when an investigated person has active precautionary measures. He also described the restrictions imposed by Peinado as "disproportionate for being absurd and unnecessary."

HazteOír opposes and rectifies its own brief

The popular accusation led by the ultra platform HazteOír has already asked the judge not to authorize the trip. In its brief, it rejects both the NATO summit and the family graduation in London and maintains that leaving the country should only be allowed in case of an "imperious" need. The organization argues that Begoña Gómez does not have her own institutional functions at the summit because Spain does not recognize the figure of first lady.

The most striking point is in London. HazteOír alleges that a daughter's graduation, however "intimate" it may be, does not justify lifting the precautionary measure. It also invokes Brexit to argue that judicial cooperation with the United Kingdom no longer works under the European arrest warrant regime and that a possible extradition could suffer further delays if Gómez decided not to return voluntarily.

The prosecution's position also took a turn during the day. According to 'Cadena SER', HazteOír first presented a document in which it did not oppose the trip to London because it was a family event, although it did reject the trip to Turkey. Hours later, it rectified and defended a total opposition, both to Ankara and to the United Kingdom.

Gómez's defense argues that her location would be guaranteed throughout the trip. In Ankara, she would be part of the official Spanish delegation, invited by the wife of the Turkish president, and would travel accompanied by the Presidency's security detail. The return to Spain is planned after the stop in London and with the passport returned to the court on the first subsequent business day.

Peinado now has the last word. The resolution will come after a week in which the withdrawal of the passport, suspicions about the escort, and the opening of the file in the CGPJ have once again placed the magistrate at the center of the political and judicial battle surrounding Begoña Gómez.