A court has authorized Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to travel to London this week to attend her daughter's graduation, but prohibits her from traveling to the NATO summit in Ankara (Turkey), after Judge Juan Carlos Peinado ordered her passport to be withdrawn in June.
In a ruling to which Europa Press has had access, Magistrate Antonio Viejo only partially grants the request made by Gómez's defense and allows her to travel to London between July 8 and 10. For this purpose, the court will hand over her passport, a document that must be returned to the judicial headquarters on July 13, once she has returned to Spanish territory.
Gómez's initial request had presented Peinado with the possibility of traveling between July 7 and 10 to both the NATO summit in Ankara (Turkey) and to England to attend her daughter's academic event.
However, the judge denies permission to attend the NATO meeting in Turkey, "to which she is invited for reasons of international institutional courtesy, without having an active role in said summit."
Viejo includes in his resolution the arguments of the prosecution, which emphasized that "Turkey does not belong to the European Union's area of freedom, security, and justice, where police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters is facilitated by its institutional structure," which is why he dismisses authorizing that trip outside the EU.
The decision has fallen to a different magistrate than the investigating judge of the case, as Peinado is on vacation, according to legal sources told this agency.
In her written statement, to which Europa Press had access, Gómez had requested permission from Peinado to fly to the Turkish capital "with the Spanish delegation and on an official plane" this Tuesday, in order to accompany the President of the Government "to the 36th Summit of NATO Heads of State and Government."
She further detailed that "the return will be via London to be able to attend her daughter's graduation," a trip that would be made "on a commercial flight on July 10 from Great Britain."
The defense insisted that "in any case, the entire trip will be made with the security team that accompanies the President of the Government on all his trips, which by itself already guarantees the absolute security of all my client's movements."
On June 20, Peinado issued an order in which she agreed to open oral proceedings against Gómez, her advisor, Cristina Álvarez, and the businessman Juan Carlos Barrabés, and ordered the withdrawal of passports for both women.
The lawyer for the president's wife filed a complaint with the Provincial Court of Madrid against Peinado's decision concerning her and Álvarez, contained in the order that sends them to trial with a popular jury for alleged crimes of influence peddling, business corruption, misappropriation, and embezzlement of public funds.
The magistrate adopted these measures after the preliminary hearing held at the Plaza de Castilla courts, in which the popular prosecutions, led by Hazte Oír, expressly requested the imposition of said precautionary measures.
In a subsequent appeal to the Provincial Court of Madrid, Gómez's defense requested that both the passport withdrawal and the other two precautionary measures imposed by Peinado on her and her advisor be annulled: the prohibition of leaving Spain and the obligation to appear to sign every fifteen days at the court.
The popular prosecutions, led by Hazte Oír, opposed any authorization for Gómez to travel abroad, alleging the existence of a "well-founded risk of flight."