Calama rejects charging Zapatero with the crime of embezzlement for the jewelry found in his office
The magistrate considers that the possession of gifts received during his mandate does not constitute a criminal offense of embezzlement of public funds.
Quick Look
Judge José Luis Calama has rejected the Prosecutor's Office's request to charge former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero with embezzlement, arguing that the possession of jewelry received as an institutional gift does not constitute a criminal offense.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The Prosecutor's Office requested the indictment of Zapatero on October 21 for the possession of jewelry supposedly given by the king of Saudi Arabia in 2007.
Judge José Luis Calama has refused to charge José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero with the crime of embezzlement of public funds for the possession of the jewelry found in his office, as requested by the Prosecutor's Office in a letter on October 21. Anti-corruption warned that, if it is true that the jewels were a gift from the king of Saudi Arabia given in Moncloa in 2007 - as Zapatero defends -, the former president would have committed embezzlement by keeping them instead of giving them to the State Heritage. Calama considers that this implies "punishment of conduct through an unpredictable and expansive interpretation of the criminal code."
"Even admitting that the appropriation of the jewels could raise reproaches of an ethical or political nature, it cannot be said that they constituted public assets for the purposes of the crime of embezzlement due to the mere circumstance of having been received in consideration of the position," the magistrate concludes.
Open Questions
- Will additional ethical or political measures be taken?
