THE Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has asked a judge to drop the investigation into the wife of Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, for peddling influence and corruption.
Prosecutors have requested that the investigation order be revoked and that the case concerning Begoña Gomez be dismissed.
They argue that there is no evidence of a crime that justifies the opening of criminal proceedings, according to the Efe news agency.
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In a swipe at the judge- Juan Carlos Peinado- the Prosecutor’s Office said it knew nothing about the case until they heard about it in the media.
The normal protocol is for them to be informed first about any investigation being started by a court.
The judge was probing a complaint lodged by the right-wing Manos Limpias union.
It was created in 1995 to make complaints against what it considers political or economic corruption that harms the public interest.
It alleged that Begoña Gomez, ‘took advantage’ of her relationship with Sanchez to either recommend or endorse ‘by letter of recommendation with her signature, businessmen who apply for public tenders’.
The Manos Limpias complaint became public on Wednesday morning and in the evening, Pedro Sanchez, released a letter to the public where he said he was mulling his position as Prime Minister and would announce a decision on Monday due to the proceedings against his wife.
Sanchez criticised Spain’s right-wing parties for their ‘continual harassment’.
Since then, he has received strong support from his PSOE socialist party, while opposing parties like the Partido Popular have called on him to go.
On Thursday, Manos Limpias secretary general, Miguel Bernad, said he based his Gomez complaints on press reports and admitted they might have been ‘fake news’.
“If they are not true, the responsibility will lie with those who published them,” he said.
He said that he became aware ‘through several digital newspapers, of a series of reports that affirmed alleged irregularities, which could be allegedly criminal’.
Bernad said that when the Prosecutor’s Office ‘did not act’, he decided to file a complaint so that a court ‘could verify whether they were truthful’.
