Bombay Durpun - Ex-top aide of Spanish PM set to go on trial for graft

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.

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.

Proceedings are due to begin at 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT).

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.

Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo on Monday urged the court to act "forcefully" against Abalos, saying the party felt "outrage".

- Sanchez under threat -

But 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.

They argued in court that both men had abused their government positions and contacts to favour businessman Victor de Aldama, who has already admitted his role in the vast and complex affair.

Abalos has protested that the investigation has been unfair.

More than 75 witnesses and about 20 experts are to testify during the proceedings, which are due to run through April.

The investigation also appears to have ensnared Abalos's successor in the powerful post of Socialist organisation secretary, Santos Cerdan.

Caught up in another case of suspected corruption for public works contracts, he has been forced to step down from the key party position.

The fall of Abalos and Cerdan -- two of Sanchez's closest allies -- has embarrassed a Sanchez who took power promising to clean up Spanish politics.

Recordings of private conversations between the accused, leaked to the media, frequently mention cash and prostitutes, dealing another blow to the Socialists who have long championed women’s rights.

Separate corruption investigations into Sanchez's wife Begona Gomez and his brother David, who faces trial later this year, have piled further pressure on the government, one of few leftist administrations in Europe.

Both the PP and far-right opposition party Vox have called for Sanchez's resignation and early elections.

They argue that the scandals expose systemic corruption within the Socialists that reaches the premier himself.

Sanchez has always denied any illegal funding of his party and rebuffed calls for polls before the next scheduled general election, due in 2027.

The Socialists have countered by highlighting corruption cases involving PP figures.

One involves a former interior minister who went on trial Monday for allegedly spying on an ex-PP treasurer who had threatened to expose corruption.

K.Williams--BD