MADRID – Spain’s top prosecutor on Monday goes on trial accused of leaking legal secrets against the conservative opposition, an unprecedented case that has rattled Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government.
The politically explosive case against Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, the first serving attorney general to face trial in Spanish history, is one of several legal affairs embarrassing the minority left-wing coalition.
Garcia Ortiz is accused of leaking case files about Alberto Gonzalez Amador, a businessman under investigation for alleged tax fraud who is the partner of the Madrid region’s influential right-wing leader, Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
Her conservative Popular Party has accused Garcia Ortiz — appointed by Sanchez’s Socialist government in 2022 — of organizing the leak to damage Ayuso, a darling of the Spanish right who has been tipped at times for a national leadership role. AFP
In 2024, media reported that Gonzalez Amador had proposed a plea deal with the public prosecutor’s office in which he would admit to alleged tax offenses in exchange for avoiding a trial and jail.
The Supreme Court began investigating Garcia Ortiz following a complaint by Gonzalez Amador, accused of defrauding 350,000 euros (around $400,000) from the treasury in 2020 and 2021 as his health company’s earnings soared during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gonzalez Amador is demanding four years in jail for Garcia Ortiz and 300,000 euros for “the moral damage caused.”
If convicted, Garcia Ortiz faces several years in prison and a ban on continuing in his profession. He has denied leaking any information about Gonzalez Amador, either personally or through his office. AFP
