Spain's Tax Agency joins investigation into Zapatero's jewels

Zapatero's jewels: the State Attorney's Office joins the case and doubts emerge

Why is the State's legal arm getting involved in an investigation into jewels found in a former prime minister's office? That is the question circulating in judicial and political circles since it emerged that the State Attorney's Office (the Spanish government's legal service) will join in the coming hours the separate case peine by National Court judge José Luis Calama. The subject: the jewels found in the office of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, as reported by El País.

The State enters the scene

The State Attorney's Office joining a incivil case is no trivial formality. It grants access to the case file, allows it to take part in the proceedings and, above all, sends a political signal: the State believes there are interests to protect. The awkward question is whose side that interest sits on. In this case, the person under investigation is a former prime minister, and the institution joining the case is the very one that legally represents the public administration. Coincidence or not, the move has set alarm bells ringing.

Suspicions of a cover-up

You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see the problem. The State, through its attorneys, will have full access to a case file involving a former prime minister. Some argue this makes it possible to steer the investigation wherever it suits, or to favour delays. Others point out that the proceedings are moving forward and that joining the case may simply respond to defending the State's own financial interests, in case the jewels had an irregular origin involving undeclared taxes. But the fact that it is precisely the state machinery now stepping in does little to dispel the doubts.

The truth is that, to date, the former prime minister has given no public explanation about the discovery. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens without illustrious surnames know perfectly well what happens when the Tax Agency (Hacienda) comes knocking over an unjustified jewel. Equality before the law, however you look at it, remains an article of faith.