MADRID, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Spanish prosecutor general Alvaro Garcia Ortiz will be tried in early November over allegations of leaking confidential information in a tax fraud case involving the partner of a leading opposition figure, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
Garcia Ortiz says he is innocent and has the backing of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has publicly defended him on numerous occasions.
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Forty people, including eight prosecutors and 12 reporters, have been called to testify as witnesses in the trial, one of several judicial woes besetting Sanchez’s government. A trial of the country’s prosecutor general is unprecedented since Spain’s return to democracy in 1978.
The case against Garcia Ortiz is at the heart of frictions between Spain’s leftist national government and Isabel Diaz Ayuso, Madrid’s right-wing regional leader, with each side accusing the other of corruption.
Garcia Ortiz is accused of sharing with media the contents of an email exchange between the regional prosecutor’s office and the lawyer representing Alberto Gonzalez Amador, Diaz Ayuso’s boyfriend. In the email, the lawyer offered his client’s admission to two counts of tax fraud in exchange for a negotiated settlement to avoid jail penalties.
Gonzalez Amador later testified in court that he had no knowledge of the proposed deal.
The Supreme Court said Garcia Ortiz’s trial is scheduled to take place between November 3 and November 13.
Gonzalez Amador will also take the stand as a witness.
Opposition leader Alberto Nunez-Feijoo has called for Garcia Ortiz to resign, adding that someone accused of malfeasance cannot be tasked with prosecuting crimes.
The trial is one of several legal challenges faced by Sanchez’s administration, including a corruption probe into two former allies, accusations of influence peddling against his brother, and an investigation into whether his wife, Begona Gomez, leveraged her status for business purposes.
Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Editing by William Maclean