Overview
- José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been formally designated investigado in two Audiencia Nacional proceedings and is due to appear for questioning on June 17 and 18 before Judge José Luis Calama.
- Investigators had a jewelry house and the Spanish Gemological Institute value about 100 pieces seized from a safe in Zapatero’s office at just over €1.3 million, a finding that prompted a separate inquiry for alleged contraband and tax fraud.
- UDEF documents and cross‑border cooperation — including French and Swiss fiscal checks and material sent by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in March — show transfers and communications investigators say link intermediaries to nearly €2 million in commissions routed to Zapatero and his daughters’ company.
- Zapatero’s legal team is contesting the admissibility of foreign‑obtained phone data and other evidence, arguing chain‑of‑custody and procedural flaws that could narrow what prosecutors can use at the hearing.
- Separately, Mexico’s CNTE strike entered its 12th day with toll‑booth seizures, roadblocks and local scuffles in Morelos, Chiapas and Guerrero, Peru’s ONPE reported 100% of actas processed while final results await JEE/JNE rulings and President José María Balcázar postponed travel to monitor security, and Tijuana police found a decomposing body near the stadium where Iran trains with no confirmed link to the World Cup.