Court opens inquiry into the leaks

A court in Madrid has opened preliminary proceedings into the leak of personal messages and diaries belonging to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's former prime minister, in the so-called Plus Ultra case. Judge Margarita Valcarce, who sits at Madrid's Court of Instruction No. 16, is examining whether a crime of disclosure of secrets (revelación de secretos) was committed. She has asked the Policía Judicial to prepare a report on how material from the case file reached the media. Judicial sources confirmed the step on 15 October. No deadline for that report has been given.

How the chats reached the press

The inquiry follows a request from Judge José Luis Calama of the Audiencia Nacional, who is running the Plus Ultra investigation. Zapatero's defence filed a complaint over the revelations, and Calama declared himself incompetent to investigate them, so the file was distributed to Valcarce's court, which shared his view that there were signs of a crime. The material first surfaced in June, after a report by the UDEF financial crime unit of the National Police on alleged influence Zapatero exerted with Bolivia's government to help a Peruvian company, for which he allegedly received 200,000 euros. Reports differ on the date of Calama's order: Europa Press gives 25 June, while El País places it in July. The published material included dozens of meals and meetings with businesspeople and senior government officials, including Pedro Sánchez, and names such as Félix Bolaños, Santos Cerdán, María Jesús Montero and Óscar López.

Restricted access and sensitive material

Calama limited access to the cloud where the case documents are stored, so that only the popular prosecution led by the PP can view them. He also placed audiovisual recordings of witness and defendant statements in a separate piece of sensitive information. According to ABC, the judge cited constant and immediate leaks to the media after the documents became available to the parties through the cloud platform. Only the court and the prosecutor's office have access to those recordings. El País reports that the Audiencia Nacional has already sent the court in Madrid the further details it had requested.

Zapatero's position in the Plus Ultra case

Zapatero is under investigation at the Audiencia Nacional together with his secretary, Gertrudis Alcázar. Calama presents him as the leader of an alleged influence-peddling network that would have profited from his supposed mediation in the 53 million euro rescue granted by the government to the airline Plus Ultra during the pandemic. El País reports that Zapatero has already joined the proceedings as a party. The leaked chats covered private matters alongside professional ones, including his personal agenda and appointments. Whether the police report will lead to charges has not been addressed in the reporting so far.