The Justice officially begins this Thursday a new judicial year that starts already marked by the first movements in the investigation into the massive entry of immigrants in Ceuta and by the reactivation of the "Koldo," "Leire Díez," and "Plus Ultra" cases.
As is customary, the solemn opening ceremony will be held at the Supreme Court, with the presidency of King Felipe VI and the interventions of the Attorney General of the State, Teresa Peramato, and the president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Isabel Perelló.
For Peramato, it will be her first opening of the course since she assumed the Attorney General's Office last December, after the resignation of her predecessor, Álvaro García Ortiz, who resigned after being sentenced by the Supreme Court to two years of disqualification for revealing confidential data of Alberto González Amador, boyfriend of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
After the summer break, an equally intense or more judicial course is expected than the previous one, conditioned by that sentence against García Ortiz —the first attorney general sentenced— and by the trial in the Supreme Court of former minister José Luis Ábalos for the "mask case," which concluded with a sentence of 24 years in prison.
In this new period, it is expected that the National Court (AN) will concentrate much of the media attention with the cases it has open, while the Supreme Court, more focused on resolving appeals, does not have on its agenda such high-profile investigations or significant oral hearings.
The high court, however, will have to resolve the nullity incident presented by Ábalos against his sentence and continue with the various investigations opened against the MEP Luis "Alvise" Pérez —privileged— for alleged crimes of illegal financing, harassment, revelation of secrets, and public disorder, in addition to ruling on the extraordinary regularization of migrants promoted by the Government and on the so-called "grandchildren's law," which grants Spanish nationality to descendants of exiles.
Clash over the investigation of the migration crisis in Ceuta
The National Court is conducting proceedings on the migration crisis in Ceuta that have caused a confrontation with the Executive due to the decision of Judge María Tardón to order confidentiality to the investigators of the National Police so that they would not inform their superiors of the progress of the investigations.
Tardón has requested several reports from the Police and Civil Guard, in addition to gathering the opinion of the Prosecutor's Office, to determine whether it is her responsibility to investigate what happened in the autonomous city at the end of July.
For now, the Prosecutor's Office has supported that the magistrate continues with the procedure and the Governing Chamber of the AN has endorsed her actions, emphasizing that "it has not interfered in national security."
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has criticized this decision, considering that there is no incompatibility between attending to judicial requirements and informing political leaders in a serious situation like that of Ceuta.
The Government argues that the fact that the chain of command of the Police was unaware of the report prepared by an internal department of immigration and borders, which attributes to Moroccan security forces the "active guiding" of migrants towards the Spanish autonomous city, could have an impact on national security.
Payments from the PSOE and derivatives of the Koldo case
Beyond the crisis in Ceuta, the National Court faces in September the interrogations of those investigated in the "Leire Díez case," including the manager of the PSOE, Ana María Fuentes, and Ismael Oliver, former lawyer of the former ministerial advisor Koldo García.
Judge Santiago Pedraz is investigating an alleged scheme aimed at stopping or diverting the judicial cases affecting the Government and the PSOE, which would have been led by former socialist leader Santos Cerdán and coordinated by the former member, who has not yet been summoned to testify.
In this procedure, a piece has also been opened regarding the payments that the PSOE allegedly made to Díez —which adds to the one that remains secret in the "Koldo case" for the cash payments of the party to reimburse advanced expenses— and another regarding the alleged rigging of contracts from the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) in exchange for illegal commissions.
Unless there are last-minute changes, the opening act of the judicial year will coincide with the statement as an accused of the former director general of the Civil Guard Leonardo Marcos, whose substitute, Mercedes González, has already appeared previously as an investigated.
Zapatero and the rescue of Plus Ultra
Judge José Luis Calama will continue to lead the proceedings of the "Plus Ultra case," in which former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his daughters, his partner Julio Martínez, and former executives of the airline are listed as investigated.
Calama attributes indicatively to Zapatero the leadership of an alleged network of influence peddling that would have benefited from the rescue of 53 million euros granted by the Government of Pedro Sánchez to the company in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic.
The former head of the Executive, who has already denied before the judge having influenced that rescue, committed to provide explanations about the jewels —preliminarily valued at 1.3 million— that the Police seized in his office, although he has not done so yet and the magistrate has not set a date for the summons of his daughters and his secretary.
The AN also has pending the resolutions of two of the most relevant trials of the year, which were ready for judgment before the August break: that of the "Operation Kitchen," an alleged parapolice device to extract information from the former treasurer of the PP Luis Bárcenas, and the one related to the alleged illicit enrichment of the Pujol family.
The Constitutional and the amnesty of the procés
The Constitutional Court (TC) will start on September 22 to study the amparo appeals presented by leaders of the "procés" against the Supreme Court's refusal to apply the amnesty law to them, after the endorsement of the Court of Justice of the European Union (TJUE) to the measure.
The guarantees court will begin with the appeal of Jordi Turull and will continue with the challenges of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, former vice president Oriol Junqueras, and other former consellers.
On the internal front, the TC is still pending for the parties to agree on the renewal of four of its twelve magistrates, including its president, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, and María Luisa Balaguer, Ricardo Enríquez, and José María Macías, whose terms expired in December. The electoral calendar, with the general elections already held and the regional elections scheduled for 2027, complicates the unblocking.
The trial of Begoña Gómez, awaiting a date
The Provincial Court of Madrid must now set the date for the trial with a jury for Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, following the investigation by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, who is nearing retirement, regarding her professional activity with the Complutense University and the work of her assistant in Moncloa, Cristina Álvarez.
The popular accusation exercised by Hazte Oír requests 13 years in prison for Gómez for alleged crimes of embezzlement and influence peddling, and six years for Álvarez for the first, while both the Prosecutor's Office and the defenses deny that a crime exists and demand acquittal.