Spain’s Supreme Court on Monday, June 22, convicted former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos and sentenced him to 24 years in prison for corruption, in what marks the first verdict in a series of scandals engulfing the ruling Socialist Party.
Ábalos was found guilty on charges including participation in a criminal organization, bribery, embezzlement, and influence peddling. The offenses were tied to the rigging of public contracts for medical supplies, specifically face masks, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he held ministerial office.
His aide, Koldo García, was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Businessman Víctor de Aldama received a sentence of four and a half years, but the court suspended his prison term in recognition of his cooperation in exposing the scheme, on condition that he commits no further offenses, submits activity reports every six months, and completes one year of community service.
The case is one of numerous corruption proceedings in Spain involving figures from the circle of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, one of the few remaining left-wing leaders in Europe, who came to power eight years ago by ousting a corruption-tainted center-right government with a promise to clean up politics.
Although he has drawn criticism even from some of his own allies, Sánchez himself has not been named in any of the cases and has maintained that they are part of a coordinated campaign to bring him down.
In a related development, a judge separately ruled that Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, will stand trial on corruption and embezzlement charges. She has been barred from leaving the country and is required to appear in court every fifteen days pending trial. She faces a potential sentence of up to 24 years in prison.
