Zapatero refuses to declare on jewellery valued at €1.3 million
The Spanish Socialist former president appeared for the first time before the Supreme Court in a criminal proceeding. He declined to answer questions about the origin of more than a hundred pieces of jewellery found in his office at party headquarters.
Zapatero refuses to declare on jewellery valued at €1.3 million
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero became on Wednesday the first former Prime Minister of Spanish democracy to testify in a criminal proceeding. However, his appearance before the Supreme Court was brief: the Socialist former leader invoked his right not to answer on the most relevant points of the investigation.
The politician, who occupied La Moncloa between 2004 and 2011, is being investigated for alleged corruption offences related to the state rescue of the airline Plus Ultra and other intermediation business dealings. The prosecution attributes to him the receipt of illegal commissions that would have benefited him, his daughters, and other linked persons. The amount of these alleged illicit gains would total at least two million euros.
The element that most complicates the situation of the former head of government is the contents of a safe deposit box discovered in his office at PSOE headquarters in Madrid. During a search carried out in May, officers found more than one hundred pieces of jewellery: rubies, diamonds, branded watches, and rings. Judicial experts valued the collection at approximately €1.3 million. A single necklace with diamonds and two Zambian emeralds would be valued at €278,000.
Initially, Zapatero's entourage asserted that the jewels were mainly inheritances from his wife and some gifts, with an estimated value between €30,000 and €50,000. Subsequently, the RTVE morning programme, citing sources close to the former president, claimed that the jewels would have been given as gifts by the Saudi monarch during a visit to Spain in 2007. According to this version, at that time there was no regulation governing such gifts.
The investigating judge is demanding that Zapatero prove that he paid taxes correctly on these pieces or, should they be gifts from abroad, that he declared them to customs. Otherwise, a money laundering offence could be established, for which he is already being investigated. In addition, in recent days alleged smuggling offences and another suspected instance of tax fraud have been added to the case.
Following the hearing, Zapatero issued a statement in which he rejected the accusations: "I am attributed very serious offences that I have not committed. I have always behaved in a decent and honest manner." His defence, for its part, is attempting to challenge key evidence: the intercepted telephone conversations of Venezuelan businessman Rodolfo Reyes, provided by the United States National Security Department. In those recordings, the former majority shareholder of Plus Ultra incriminates the former president as the hub of a network of shell companies that would have laundered Venezuelan funds during the pandemic.
The case has generated considerable political impact. Pedro Sánchez, the current president and former ally of Zapatero, avoided expressing his support for him on Wednesday in Congress, something he had done previously. The repeated corruption scandals in the Socialist leader's entourage are increasing internal pressure to call early elections, a demand that is now also being raised by the Catalan party Junts.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung