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Spain’s chief prosecutor has announced his resignation after the supreme court found him guilty last week of leaking confidential information in a case involving a businessman who is the boyfriend of a prominent rightwing politician.
The unprecedented case is a blow to the coalition government of the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who appointed Álvaro García Ortiz in 2022 and has defended his innocence repeatedly.
In a letter seen by Reuters, García Ortiz said his decision to step down, before the sentence banning him from his post for two years, came from “profound respect” for judicial rulings.
“Though my decision stems directly from the ruling, I’m convinced that I’ve faithfully served the institution to which I am honoured to belong, with an unequivocal vocation for public service, a sense of duty and institutional loyalty,” read the letter to the justice minister, Félix Bolaños.
His departure was widely expected even though the supreme court has yet to give its rationale for the verdict and García Ortiz may still appeal before Spain’s constitutional court and ultimately the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.
“We respect the court’s decision but do not agree with it,” a government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, told the state broadcaster TVE after García Ortiz’s resignation, adding that the lack of unanimity and notifying of the verdict without a full ruling set a worrying precedent and had generated “stupefaction” among the public.
García Ortiz was last week also fined €7,300 (£6,428), and ordered to pay €10,000 in damages to the businessman, Alberto González Amador. He had denied leaking personal information about González Amador to journalists when the businessman was under investigation for alleged tax fraud.
González Amador is the partner of the rightwing populist politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who, as Madrid’s regional president, has been one of Sánchez’s most outspoken critics.
Sánchez is under increasing pressure because of a series of corruption allegations facing his family and his allies.
The case has reignited the debate over the politicisation of the judiciary and comes as investigations continue into allegations of corruption involving Sánchez’s wife and his brother. While the prime minister has dismissed those allegations as politically motivated smears, in June he ordered his right-hand man, Santos Cerdán, to resign as the socialist party’s organisational secretary after a supreme court judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts.
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The corruption investigations, which also involve the former transport minister José Luis Ábalos and one of his aides, are particularly damaging as Sánchez came to power promising to crack down on graft.
Reuters contributed to this report
