Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday said it had convicted the top prosecutor of leaking confidential legal information against the conservative opposition in a fresh blow to Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
The conviction of Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, appointed by Sanchez’s government in 2022, increases the pressure stemming from several legal affairs that have embarrassed the minority left-wing coalition.
Garcia Ortiz will be banned from his post for two years, fined around €7,300 ($8,400) and pay €10,000 in damages to complainant Alberto Gonzalez Amador, the partner of right-wing figurehead Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the court said.
In 2024, media reported that Gonzalez Amador had proposed a plea deal with the public prosecutor’s office in which he would admit to alleged tax offences in exchange for avoiding a trial and jail.
Ayuso, the leader of the Madrid region who has been tipped for a national leadership role, and her conservative Popular Party (PP), accused Garcia Ortiz of leaking case files about Gonzalez Amador to damage her.
Gonzalez Amador had demanded four years in jail for Garcia Ortiz and €300,000 for “the moral damage caused”.
Garcia Ortiz, the first serving attorney general to go on trial in Spanish history, denied the accusations during the proceedings in the Supreme Court this month.
His legal team presented him as the victim of a campaign by the Madrid region’s government to distract attention from Gonzalez Amador’s legal woes and protect Ayuso.
Public prosecutors had also called for an acquittal, saying nothing proved that Garcia Ortiz ordered the leak of the correspondence about Gonzalez Amador.
Separate corruption investigations targeting the prime minister’s wife, brother and two former Socialist heavyweights have threatened to topple Sanchez, who came to power in 2018 promising to clean up Spanish politics.
The centre-right Partido Popular has repeatedly called for Sanchez’s resignation and a snap general election, accusing his minority government of widespread corruption.
Sanchez has said the graft allegations against his wife and brother are part of a “smear campaign” set in motion by the Right.
Spain is failing to tackle corruption, a report from the Council of Europe has found. https://t.co/lBbsDLQEj2
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 1, 2025
