Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday said it had convicted the top prosecutor of leaking confidential legal information against the conservative opposition in a fresh blow to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The conviction of Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, consistently defended by Sanchez’s government, which appointed him in 2022, increases the pressure stemming from several legal affairs that have embarrassed the minority left-wing coalition.
Garcia Ortiz will be banned from his post for two years, fined around 7,300 euros ($8,400), and pay 10,000 euros in damages to complainant Alberto Gonzalez Amador, the partner of right-wing figurehead Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the court said.
In 2024, media reported based on leaked correspondence that Gonzalez Amador had proposed a plea deal with the public prosecutor’s office in which he would admit to alleged tax offences in exchange for avoiding a trial and jail.
Ayuso, the leader of the Madrid region who has been tipped for a national leadership role, and her conservative Popular Party (PP) accused Garcia Ortiz of orchestrating the leak to damage her.
PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote on X that the unprecedented conviction would “always hang over Sanchez”, demanding he apologise for a “clumsy political operation”.
Government sources said they “respect the ruling, but do not agree with it”, with the selection process for a new attorney general to begin “in the coming days”.
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Legal Pressure Mounts
Gonzalez Amador, who is due to stand trial for the alleged tax fraud, had demanded four years in jail for Garcia Ortiz and 300,000 euros for “the moral damage caused”.
Garcia Ortiz, the first serving attorney general to go on trial in Spanish history, denied the accusations during the proceedings in the Supreme Court this month.
His legal team presented him as the victim of a campaign by the Madrid region’s government to distract attention from Gonzalez Amador’s legal woes and protect Ayuso.
Public prosecutors had also called for an acquittal, saying nothing proved that Garcia Ortiz ordered the leak about Gonzalez Amador’s case.
Separate corruption investigations targeting the prime minister’s wife, brother, and two former Socialist heavyweights have threatened to topple Sanchez, who came to power in 2018 promising to clean up Spanish politics.
The PP has repeatedly called for Sanchez’s resignation and a snap general election, accusing his government of widespread corruption.
Sanchez has said the graft allegations against his wife and brother are part of a “smear campaign” by the right.
AFP
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