Begoña Gómez, the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has been left facing a maximum of five years in jail after Madrid’s provincial court struck out two of the four charges against her. Judges ruled on July 16 that she would stand trial before a jury of nine lay citizens for influence peddling and embezzlement of public money.
The two surviving counts carry maximum terms of two years for influence peddling and three for diverting public property to private use. That ceiling would rise to eight years if the court were to accept an aggravated reading of the embezzlement charge, on which it set no figure for the loss.
The private prosecution coordinated by the campaign group HazteOir had sought 24 years across four offences and must now redraft its case. State prosecutors had asked for the charges to be dropped and saw their appeal partly upheld.
The court dismissed the counts of business corruption and misappropriation of funds and removed the businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés from the jury proceedings. It also lifted the passport seizure, travel ban and fortnightly court appearances imposed in June by investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado, finding no real risk of flight.
The case centres on a chair in competitive social transformation that Gómez co-directed at the Complutense University of Madrid. The five magistrates said it was credible she had used her standing as the Prime Minister’s wife to have the chair created almost at once and without scrutiny.
They also found signs that Gómez had taken over the internet domain hosting software built with corporate sponsorship, then moved it to a company she owned. The university has put its losses at €113,509.
Sánchez’s office said Gómez was innocent and cast the case as a political operation built on false reports and aimed at harassing her. The Prime Minister, who is not charged, has made the same argument since the inquiry opened in April 2024.
The ruling came two days after a court in Badajoz, western Spain, barred Sánchez’s brother David Sánchez from public office for nine years over a job judges found had been created for him. Former transport minister José Luis Ábalos was convicted in June over pandemic mask contracts.
Court sources told OKDiario the trial would not open before 2027 and most likely in the spring or summer. Sánchez has said the next general election will also be held that year.
Spanish juries convict in close to 90 per cent of cases, according to the General Council of the Judiciary. A separate strand of the inquiry into public contracts financed with European Union money remains open, with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office also examining Barrabés.
