MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spain's ex-PM Zapatero testifies as a suspect in the Plus Ultra bailout case

The magistrate attributes to him the alleged offenses of criminal organization, influence peddling, money laundering and documentary falsification

Spain's former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero appeared on Wednesday before Judge José Luis Calama, of the Audiencia Nacional, as an investigated person in the Plus Ultra case, in what constitutes an unprecedented event in Spanish democracy: it is the first time a former head of the Executive sits before a magistrate as a suspect. He will answer questions from the judge and his lawyer, but not from the Anti-Corruption prosecutor.

The magistrate attributes to him the alleged offenses of criminal organization, influence peddling, money laundering and documentary falsification. In his ruling, he places him at the “apex” of an influence structure that allegedly facilitated the €53 million bailout that Pedro Sánchez's government granted in 2021 to the airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic. The commissions allegedly received by the former president and his circle are estimated at between two and four million euros, channeled, according to the investigation, through companies linked to him and his daughters.

The case originates in a transnational investigation begun in 2018 against a network of Venezuelan businessmen accused of money laundering, whose funds would come, according to the prosecution, from crimes committed by officials in Venezuela. In 2021, the extraction of the phone of Rodolfo Reyes, the majority partner of Plus Ultra, revealed communications pointing to the former president; that information, obtained with the cooperation of the United States, placed him at the center of the inquiry.

On May 19, when he was formally named a suspect, police agents searched his office in Madrid and the headquarters of his daughters' company. In a safe they found close to 80 pieces of jewelry, with a preliminary valuation of €1.3 million, which led the judge to open a separate case for alleged fiscal crimes and smuggling. Rodríguez Zapatero, who requested a postponement to be questioned on this aspect, will have to justify the origin of the jewelry and the payment of the corresponding taxes.

The former president, who denies the accusations, has presented himself as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” linked to his support for the current head of government. The investigation, which is ongoing, falls within a series of corruption cases affecting the Socialist Party's circle, among them the so-called Koldo case, which involves former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos. Rodríguez Zapatero's appearance coincided with a parliamentary session in which opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo sharpened his criticism of Sánchez. The former president will continue his testimony on Thursday.