The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office maintains that the former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero may have incurred in an alleged crime of misappropriation of public funds, punishable by prison sentences, by receiving jewelry "of very significant value" from Saudi Arabia and not putting it at the disposal of the State Heritage, "as he did with other gifts at the end of his Presidency."
This is stated in a document accessed by Europa Press, where Anti-Corruption emphasizes that in the official list of gifts received by Zapatero during his time in La Moncloa, the jewelry located in his office does not appear. These pieces were preliminarily valued at 1.3 million euros and the former president himself also attributes them to a gift from Saudi Arabia.
"The delivery record took place on March 1, 2012, and in the list of delivered goods, the jewelry found in Zapatero's office on May 19, 2026, does not appear," details Anti-Corruption, which specifies that a desk clock with emeralds from King Abdullah Ben Abzulazid Al Saud is indeed listed, whose "delivery record is dated March 1, 2012."
The prosecutor describes the explanation offered by Zapatero as "brief," with which he intends "without further documentary data, for the court, in a pure exercise of procedural automatism, to issue a letter rogatory to Saudi Arabia, and in passing accept his version of the origin of the jewelry," the document states.
In this line, he considers it "unjustified" to send that letter rogatory to a State in which "the goods were not delivered and in relation to a monarch, apparently, already deceased," concluding that "the focus should not be placed on that country, but on Spain and more specifically on the seat of the Presidency of the Government, which is where, according to him, the controversial jewelry was delivered to him."
The intervention of that jewelry by the Police prompted the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama to open proceedings against Zapatero for alleged tax and smuggling crimes. In addition, the magistrate attributes to him the leadership of an alleged influence peddling scheme linked to the rescue of 53 million euros that the Government granted to the airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic.