The UDEF, Judge Calama, and Zapatero's leaked private messages that have nothing to do with the case: a double attack on our democracy

What happened this past Wednesday with the UDEF, the investigating judge Calama, and the private messages, even from the private life of former president Zapatero, leaked in that National Police report, is a double attack, a double assault against our democracy.

Firstly, because leaking private messages or aspects of private life that have nothing to do with the case being investigated directly affects privacy and data protection. One doesn't have to be a jurist to realize that if Zapatero goes to English classes, if Zapatero goes to the hairdresser, or if Zapatero schedules a meeting with a journalist, that has little to do with the investigation of the jewels or with the investigation of the alleged influence peddling, which we will see how it ends, in the Zapatero case.

Even so, those private messages, that private life of Zapatero, were included in the UDEF report.

This affects, firstly, data protection and Zapatero's privacy. And, secondly, it also affects the freedom of information, which is sacred in a Rule of Law and in a democracy like Spain.

Because in those private messages, as everyone has been able to see, there were also conversations between Zapatero and journalists. Conversations from a source of information, because whether people like it or not, Zapatero is also a source of information for journalists. There they were, in a UDEF report, private conversations of fellow journalists with Zapatero.

A sacred task of journalism was being exposed: talking to sources, getting information, and scheduling interviews. And it all appeared in the police report, when the protection of sources is sacred in a democracy and is sacred for any journalist.

Now Judge Calama, the investigating judge, says he is going to investigate the leak. But that is not the only problem. That it was leaked is a problem, of course. But the underlying problem is that the National Police, with the endorsement of Judge Calama, because the judge is the head of the Judicial Police in this case, allowed those messages, that private life, which I insist, has nothing to do with the case being investigated, to be incorporated. That also affects our democracy.

From Zapatero's circle, as we have published in the newspaper I direct, 'ElConstitucional.es', they speak of a violation of fundamental rights. And the truth is yes: we can perfectly speak of a violation of fundamental rights.

I say this, I who in my newspaper and in the forums in which I participate have always defended that the work of justice must be respected, that our Rule of Law must be respected, and that our judges must be respected.

I even went so far as to say that Judge Calama, the investigating judge in the Zapatero case, is not Judge Peinado. He is not a black sheep like Judge Peinado, a judge who has an evident judicial obsession with Begoña Gómez. A judge, Peinado, who has invented in a writ the bizarre story that Begoña Gómez, the wife of the President of the Government, could flee and that in that escape even her escorts, the National Police who protect the wife of the President of the Government, could help her. A bizarre story that, for a Netflix movie, would give a lot. But that is not the case.

I have said that Judge Calama is not a black sheep, because his judicial career as an investigating judge supports this. He is not Judge Peinado. But what happened this past Wednesday, this violation of fundamental rights of the accused, of the investigated Zapatero, is serious.

Yes, Zapatero is accused and investigated. But like any Spanish citizen, like any Spanish man or woman who is investigated, the presumption of innocence also applies to him and, therefore, the rights of the investigated also apply. Until he is convicted, if he is ever convicted, we will see how that investigation ends, he will continue to be a Spanish citizen for whom the presumption of innocence applies.

And, of course, it must also be respected for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.