Overview
- The National Court’s appeals panel annulled the police search of Sidenor’s Basauri headquarters after challenges from state prosecutors and the company’s top executives.
- The decision rebuked investigating judge Francisco de Jorge, who had authorized the raid against the prosecution’s advice.
- Judges called the operation premature and disproportionate, noting thin grounds, pending lines of inquiry, and less intrusive ways to obtain the records.
- The panel also warned of an open‑ended search risk because the warrant reached back to 2021 even though the complaint centers on four exports from 2024 to 2025.
- Evidence taken in the raid could now be excluded, yet the case continues into alleged steel sales to arms maker Israel Military Industries and possible counts of contraband and complicity in crimes against humanity for president José Antonio Jainaga and directors Marco Pineda and Iñigo Molero.