Berliner Tageblatt - Spain's top prosecutor denies leaking documents against opposition

Alvaro Garcia Ortiz refused to answer anyone but his lawyer during a 90-minute testimony at the Supreme Court, the sources added, in an appearance without precedent in Spanish legal history.

The politicised case has pitted Ortiz, nominated by Sanchez's government in 2022, against the Madrid region's leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso and is one of several affairs undermining the minority leftist administration.

Spanish media published in March last year a draft agreement between the public prosecutor's office and the lawyer of businessman Alberto Gonzalez Amador, who is under investigation for alleged tax fraud.

Amador offered a deal to prosecutors in which he would admit the alleged offences in exchange for avoiding a trial, media reported based on the leak.

The Supreme Court began investigating Ortiz in October after a complaint by Amador, who saw the earnings of his health company soar during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

The court ruled this month that preliminary findings provided a "base of evidence" to suspect Ortiz's involvement in the revelations.

Ortiz on Wednesday denied leaking information about Amador either directly or via his office. He said the documents were requested as part of standard legal procedures, according to legal sources.

- 'Unprecedented damage' -

Ayuso's conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) has demanded Ortiz's resignation and accused allies of Sanchez of organising the leak.

Ortiz's court appearance "is the image of unprecedented damage to an essential institution of our democracy. He should go before causing more damage", PP secretary general Cuca Gamarra wrote on X.

The spokesman for Ayuso's regional government, Miguel Angel Garcia Martin, said it was shocking that the nation's top prosecutor had to appear in court accused of "breaking the law he swore to uphold". Sanchez's office "probably" ordered Ortiz to make the leak, he added.

Ayuso, a darling of the Spanish right who frequently lambasts Sanchez, has denounced a "savage" campaign against her by the "powers of the state".

"This worries me greatly because this generates significant institutional damage," political scientist Pablo Simon told public broadcaster RTVE on Monday.

"The message being passed on to all citizens is a politicised law, a partial law. We only accept the law when it benefits us, we're against when it doesn't," added Simon, a professor at Madrid's Carlos III University.

Corruption investigations are also targeting Sanchez's wife Begona Gomez and his brother David Sanchez, providing the opposition with more ammunition to attack the fragile coalition government that is struggling to pass legislation.

M.Odermatt--BTB