Spanish anti-corruption prosecutors see grounds to charge PSOE but will wait

The Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office has informed judge Santiago Pedraz that there are indications of the PSOE's liability as a legal entity in the case concerning the Leire Díez scheme, but it argues that the formal indictment must wait until pending inquiries are completed. If the judge accepts this position, the indictment would not come before the general elections of 29 November.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office has told Audiencia Nacional judge Santiago Pedraz that the case peine into the Leire Díez scheme contains indications pointing to the PSOE's responsibility as a legal entity. However, the prosecutors consider that before formally naming the party as a suspect, several documentary inquiries already requested must be completed and **Santos Cerdán**, former Organisation Secretary of the PSOE, must testify.

## Which inquiries are still missing and why the indictment is delayed

Last Tuesday, at the prosecutors' request, Pedraz asked the PSOE's legal advisory office to provide the complete list of lawyers and law firms it has hired between **2021 and 2025**. He also asked the party for documentation allowing verification of the services those lawyers were to provide — the engagement letter or contract — and the work actually carried out.

The prosecutors consider the PP's request, as the private prosecutor in this case, to indict the PSOE now to be hasty. If Pedraz accepts the Anti-Corruption Office's position, which is usual, the PSOE's indictment as a legal entity would not take place before the general elections on **29-N**.

## The evidence already in the case file

The case contains indications that two law firms run by lawyers **Jacobo Teijelo** and **Ismael Oliver**, as well as the consultancy of **Gaspar Zarrías**, were used to finance Leire Díez's activities. The aim was to obtain information to discredit judges, prosecutors and UCO agents involved in judicial proceedings that compromise the PSOE.

A ruling from last May signed by Pedraz already noted that the former socialist Organisation Secretary, Santos Cerdán, paid certain expenses of the scheme, such as Leire Díez's travel. The judge stressed that Cerdán placed the party's infrastructure at the service of this allegedly incivil operation dedicated to boycotting judicial cases that were inconvenient for the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez's government.

## The crimes the PP attributes to the PSOE and Cerdán's role

The PP attributes to the PSOE the alleged crimes of illegal party financing, influence peddling, bribery, money laundering and embezzlement. In its brief, the party highlighted that the testimony of various PSOE officials — from its chairwoman, **Cristina Narbona**, to Cerdán's secretaries — has shown that the Socialist Party did not have, at the time of the events, control and oversight measures capable of preventing the commission of crimes within it.

At least regarding the approval and payment of expenses and the use of its premises by third parties. According to the PP's brief, those decisions depended on the dictates of the PSOE's top leadership, with no body overseeing its actions or any measure restricting them.

## The scheme also targeted the David Sánchez case

The Leire scheme also set out to destroy the **David Sánchez** case, the judicial proceeding investigating Pedro Sánchez's brother, and to attack the investigating judge **Beatriz Biedma**, who has testified at the Audiencia Nacional as an injured party. The leader of Los Rocho told the UCO that Leire's associate said to her: "Biedma is a thorn in our side, she has to be eliminated."

The final decision on the PSOE's indictment rests with Pedraz. Any assessment of incivil liability requires waiting for the judicial ruling and the courts' judgement.