Judge Beatriz Biedma, in charge of the judicial investigation into David Sánchez, brother of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, testifies this Thursday, as an injured party in the so-called Leire Díez case, the cause in which the National Court judge Santiago Pedraz investigates an alleged plot aimed at disrupting judicial procedures affecting the Government and the PSOE.
She is the first judge to appear in this investigation, and she does so after having stated that she felt “affected” by an alleged campaign to “discredit her publicly and professionally”, which, according to her argument, would have been executed by the plot allegedly led by former socialist leader Santos Cerdán and coordinated by former militant Leire Díez.
Santiago Pedraz admitted Beatriz Biedma as a private prosecution, considering that the magistrate is prima facie harmed, “at least for the crime of slander, without prejudice to what results from the subsequent investigation of the case in relation to the rest of the crimes she imputes”.
The evidence provided by the magistrate
In her brief, Beatriz Biedma requested to appear as an injured party, arguing that she had been the object of actions aimed at obtaining information about her person, discrediting her publicly and professionally, promoting complaints and grievances against her, collecting data about her environment, and removing her from specific judicial procedures.
The judge also extended this condition to the institutional level, “insofar as said actions appear directly connected with her condition” as the instructor of the case against the Prime Minister's brother, who was sentenced by the Provincial Court of Badajoz to nine years of disqualification for malfeasance.
In that same brief, the magistrate stated that the evidence suggests that the purpose of the alleged plot was “to neutralize, disturb, or even destroy the judicial procedure whose instruction she had been entrusted with”.
The alleged discredit campaign
Beatriz Biedma also pointed out that “it would have been Leire Díez herself who instructed” former judge Luis José Sáenz de Tejada to “promote complaints” against her before the Attorney General's Office, understanding that he had the capacity to influence that institution.
The magistrate's lawyer argued that, although Sáenz de Tejada had been denouncing Biedma since she intervened in the instruction of the criminal case in which he was finally convicted, the support of the investigated criminal group would have allowed the scope and damage of the discredit campaign to be multiplied, taking advantage of the media interest in the procedure against David Sánchez.
The judge also referred to an entry in Leire Díez's agenda which, according to her argument, “would be related to investigations that the magistrate was conducting into drug trafficking clans”. Furthermore, she stated that she became aware “of the existence of contacts promoted by the alleged criminal group under investigation with people linked to a well-known clan based in the city of Badajoz with the aim of acting against the magistrate”.
For this reason, Biedma asked Santiago Pedraz to incorporate and investigate that entry, as well as the publications of the channel “Magistrado Anticorrupción TV”, in which Sáenz de Tejada, according to an official report from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, developed an active campaign against her.
The testimonies and Leire Díez's appeal
Among the testimonies collected in the case is that of Cintia Rocha, linked to one of these clans, who declared before the UCO that Sáenz de Tejada told her that Biedma “was a fucking pain in the ass and had to be eliminated”, and that the intention, according to her account, was “to cause physical harm to the magistrate”. She also stated that the former judge told her that the magistrate “was calling the shots in the courts and that the rest of the judges were influenced by her”, and that he uttered the phrase “A donkey learns by beating”.
The document incorporated into the summary includes statements from several witnesses and reconstructs contacts, meetings, and communications between some of the investigated parties. In this context, the testimony of Cintia Rocho, matriarch of the Los Rochos clan, also appears, who assured the agents that Sáenz de Tejada even proposed a physical action against the magistrate.
Leire Díez's request to annul the judge's appearance
In parallel, former socialist militant Leire Díez has asked the National Court judge Santiago Pedraz to annul Beatriz Biedma's appearance as an injured party. Her defense denies having slandered her and questions the evidence with which the instructor, supported by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, allowed her to exercise the private prosecution.
The appeal challenges the decision adopted last Monday and maintains that “there is not the slightest indication” of slander attributable to Leire Díez. The request comes after Beatriz Biedma provided more than 90 videos on Wednesday with which she intends to prove a campaign against her and expand the actions that Santiago Pedraz initially agreed to investigate.
The discussion is framed within the case concerning an alleged plot to obstruct judicial procedures affecting the PSOE and the Government's circle, in which the actions of Leire Díez and former socialist Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán, among others, are being investigated.
The inclusion of Beatriz Biedma allows for the examination of possible crimes committed against her during the instruction of David Sánchez's procedure, and this admission remains pending what the investigation determines.
