Overview
- The Audiencia Provincial of Madrid, which ruled Thursday, said Begoña Gómez must be tried by a jury on two counts: trafficking of influences and malversación (embezzlement).
- Magistrates annulled earlier imputations for corruption in business and appropriation, and removed the instructor’s precautionary measures by ordering the return of Gómez’s passport and ending biweekly court signings.
- The court deactivated Judge Juan Carlos Peinado’s prior auto de apertura de juicio oral and required him to re-notify the parties with a revised opening order, a step that will delay scheduling and jury selection.
- Political reactions were sharply divided: opposition parties presented the ruling as proof of wrongdoing while the government and allies called the process politicized and pointed to corrections the Audiencia made in Peinado’s probe.
- The decision caps a two‑year, contested instruction that the Audiencia has repeatedly reviewed and corrected and it arrives alongside other regional judicial turbulence, including the director of the Guardia Civil being questioned and personnel changes in Mexico’s FGR plus a high‑profile preventive detention in Peru.