Overview
- The judge has reversed an earlier refusal and admitted José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's incidente de nulidad for processing after the defence said it could not access the digital dossier in time.
- Defence lawyer Víctor Moreno Catena argued the filing was timely only from the moment lawyers gained access to the case platform and the judge accepted that reasoning for the purpose of admission.
- The admission is strictly limited to resolutions that could not be formally appealed, and the judge warned the nullity claim cannot serve as a broad tool to reopen routinely contestable investigative acts.
- Messages taken from businessman Rodolfo Reyes's mobile, a device seized by US authorities and incorporated into the sumario by Policía Judicial, remain in the file and the judge has kept Zapatero formally imputed on alleged influence‑peddling linked to the 2021 €53 million Plus Ultra rescue.
- The decision gives the defence a narrow procedural foothold but leaves the underlying criminal probe active; legal experts say the next steps will focus on targeted appeals and whether any specific decisions can be annulled under Spain's strict nullity rules.