A former right-hand man to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is to go on trial Tuesday in a graft case that threatens the Socialist-led minority government.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8206467

Jose Luis Abalos is a disgraced ex-Socialist heavyweight, a former transport minister who helped propel Sanchez to power in 2018. The case is one of several corruption affairs rattling the fragile coalition.

Abalos and his former adviser Koldo Garcia are suspected of having pocketed kickbacks for handing out public contracts worth millions of euros for sanitary equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The Supreme Court in Madrid will judge them for alleged bribery, embezzlement, influence peddling, membership of a criminal organisation and misuse of confidential information. The men deny the charges.

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This is the first major corruption trial affecting the government since Sanchez came to power in 2018 after ousting a conservative Popular Party (PP) government in a no-confidence vote over its own graft scandal.

The Socialists have sought to distance themselves from the case.

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But [conservative Popular Party] PP spokesman Juan Bravo said Abalos was Sanchez’s “friend and quite possibly his cover-up man” even though the prime minister has said he knew nothing about his former minister’s personal life.

Prosecutors want Abalos to serve 24 years in jail. They portray him as the mastermind of a scheme of illicit enrichment. They have called for a 19-year term for Garcia, who they say was a key intermediary.

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