The brother of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been convicted of abuse of office and barred from holding public office for nine years.
The Provincial Court of Badajoz found David Sánchez Pérez-Castejón guilty of administrative malfeasance, ruling that he had been a necessary party to the irregular creation of a job tailored for him.
The court cleared him of the more serious charge of influence-peddling and imposed no prison term. Private prosecutors had sought up to six years in jail.
The case centred on a senior post at the Badajoz provincial council, in Extremadura, southwest Spain. Judges found the role had been invented in 2017 with no real duties and awarded to David Sánchez in breach of the principles of merit and equal access.
He was hired to coordinate the activities of the province’s music conservatories, later moving to head an office for the performing arts. The court said the appointment had served his personal interest in opera rather than any public need.
Miguel Ángel Gallardo, who was president of the provincial council at the time and later led the Socialist Party in Extremadura, was convicted of two counts of the same offence. He was barred from public office for 18 years.
Nine other defendants were also convicted, among them council officials and Luis María Carrero, a former aide to the prime minister at the Moncloa palace. All 11 had faced charges of malfeasance and influence-peddling.
Spain’s public prosecutor had asked for every defendant to be acquitted, arguing that no offence had been proven. The private prosecutions were brought by the opposition Partido Popular and the right-wing Vox party, alongside campaign groups and the Manos Limpias organisation, which lodged the original complaint in 2024.
The 377-page ruling can be appealed. David Sánchez has denied any part in designing or awarding the post.
The verdict is the first conviction of a close relative of a sitting Spanish prime minister and adds to the legal troubles surrounding Sánchez’s Socialist-led government.
It comes three weeks after the Supreme Court jailed José Luis Ábalos, once the prime minister’s closest lieutenant and his transport minister, for 24 years over a pandemic-era corruption scheme.
