MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declined to testify on Tuesday as a witness in a judicial investigation into alleged corruption and influence peddling against his wife that led him to consider resigning in April, lawyers present at the hearing said.
Sanchez’s wife lawyer, former Interior Minister Antonio Camacho, said Sanchez’s testimony lasted two minutes. Under Spanish law, close relatives including spouses can refuse to answer questions when summoned by a judge.
Camacho said the investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado asked him two questions – whether he was related to any of the people under investigation and whether he wanted to testify.
Sanchez replied that Begona Gomez was his wife and he did not want to testify.
Government officials were not immediately available to comment.
The proceedings are part of a preliminary investigation into whether Gomez used her position as the premier’s wife to secure sponsors for a university master’s degree course that she ran.
Sanchez has denied the accusations against her, saying they were baseless and orchestrated by right-wing political foes.
Peinado interviewed Sanchez in the Moncloa palace government headquarters in Madrid where Sanchez has his official residence.
He was accompanied by Gomez’s counsel, representatives of the prosecutor and a lawyer of far-right party VOX, which uses a legal instrument known as “the people’s accusation” which lets private individuals bring criminal complaints against third parties.
A small group of protesters congregated outside La Moncloa shouting slogans against Sanchez and his Socialist Party.
It is the first time a sitting Spanish prime minister has been called to testify in a judicial case since his predecessor Mariano Rajoy was summoned as a witness in 2017 in a graft case that led to the conviction of several members of his conservative People’s Party and ultimately to a 2018 vote of no confidence that allowed Sanchez to become prime minister.
(Reporting by Guillermo Martinez, Juan Antonio Dominguez, Juan Medina, Belen Carreno and Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Angus MacSwan)
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