A Spanish court on Monday authorised Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez to attend her daughter’s graduation in London, after she was banned from leaving the country as part of a corruption probe.
A judge has ordered Gómez to stand trial on alleged influence peddling, embezzlement, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds after a two-year-long investigation, one of several scandals threatening her husband’s left-wing government.
Juan Carlos Peinado deemed Gómez a flight risk and ordered the confiscation of her passport last month while a higher court assesses his order to stand trial, for which no date is set.
A Madrid court ruled that Gómez could exceptionally receive her passport to go to London on July 8-10 but denied her request to accompany Sánchez to a NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Turkey does not belong to the European Union’s freedom, security and justice space, in which police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters is facilitated,” the ruling said.
Gómez was “invited for reasons of international institutional courtesy, without having an active role in the said summit”, and must return her passport on July 13, the court added.
The investigation centres on the creation and management of a chair at Madrid’s Complutense University that was co-directed by Gómez, as well as the alleged use of public resources and personal connections to advance private interests.
Sánchez has defended his wife’s innocence and denounced a smear campaign by the right to undermine his minority government.
