Spain's supreme court has sentenced former transport minister José Luis Ábalos to 24 years in prison for accepting bribes on public contracts for sanitary equipment, including face masks, during the Covid-19 pandemic. His aide, Koldo García, received a 19-year sentence in the same trial, which is one of several corruption scandals to hit Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government in recent months.
Background of the case
Ábalos, once Sánchez's trusted right-hand man, was found guilty of being part of a criminal organization, bribery, misuse of public funds, money laundering, and influence peddling. The seven-judge panel heard evidence from public officials, civil servants, expert witnesses, and police. The court stated that the seriousness of the charges derived from the fact that they erode the fundamentals of a democratic state and distort public power into an instrument for individual interests.
The sentencing was delivered via video-conference to Ábalos and García, who have been held in preventive custody since November in a Madrid prison.
Political impact on Sánchez
The case is particularly damaging for Sánchez, as Ábalos was his right-hand man for many years. The verdict comes two days after a separate court ruled that Sánchez's wife, Begoña Gómez, who faces corruption and influence-peddling charges, is a flight risk and must surrender her passport. Gómez is accused of using her influence as the prime minister's wife to secure sponsors for a university master's degree course and using state funds to pay her assistant for personal matters. The case was triggered by a complaint from the right-wing pressure group Manos Limpias.
Judge Juan Carlos Peinado suggested that Gómez's security detail might help her escape, despite her living in the Moncloa Palace, one of Spain's most secure buildings. This led Spain's judicial watchdog to take disciplinary action against Peinado for impugning the integrity of public servants. The national police also issued a rare statement calling the judge's reasoning unjustified and stressing their political neutrality.
Other related cases
Sánchez has not been named in any of the cases, but his brother, David Sánchez, is on trial over allegations that he received a bespoke job from the Socialist-led council of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the national leader of the party but not yet prime minister. The case was also brought by Manos Limpias, leading to claims of a concerted right-wing effort to damage the government.
So-called 'lawfare' has become common in Spain, where courts must consider cases from private organizations or individuals, however frivolous. Barcelona's former mayor Ada Colau faced 22 legal challenges to her policies, all eventually dismissed.
Ábalos is the fifth government minister jailed since Spain's transition to democracy in 1978. Businessman Víctor de Aldama, linked to the scandal, was sentenced to four and a half years on Monday but the sentence was suspended due to his cooperation. He will not have to return the €3.7 million (£3.2 million) he received in commissions for mask procurement.
