Journalists from several of its media outlets, determined to protect their sources and at the same time defend their work, attended the general of Madrid Álvaro García Ortiz who is accused of leaking classified information about the partner of the featured executive of the People’s Party (PP) and Madrid regional governor Isabel Diaz Ayúso.
Agiouso’s target?
In a trial unprecedented in Spain’s modern history, the Madrid High Court has been trying since Monday to determine whether Álvaro García Ortiz knowingly breached the confidentiality of the interrogation by giving the press a classified document involving businessman Alberto Gondaleth Amador – who is also on trial for tax fraud – in order to tarnish his partner’s image of Isabel Diath Ayuso, president of the Madrid region.
At the center is an email in which Gondaleth Amador’s lawyers suggested to the prosecution that their client plead guilty to tax evasion in exchange for a reduced sentence.
“In the 22 years of my career, Mr. García Ortiz has never given me any document,” said the deputy director of the website ElDiario.es. He said he learned of the email’s existence about a week before it was released to the press. Like the other journalists who testified today, he invoked “professional confidentiality” to not reveal his source, but assured that the attorney general is “innocent,” as he himself insists.
Who did the leaks?
The case began in the first months of 2024, when justice was investigating Alberto Gondaleth Amador on suspicion of tax fraud, from which he obtained 350,000 euros, during the Covid-19 pandemic. In March 2024 several media published information about the case and in particular the discussions that the Madrid prosecutor’s office had with Gondaleth Amador’s lawyer to reach an agreement between them. For these leaks, the businessman’s defense blames the prosecutor who was appointed to this position in 2022 by Spain’s socialist government.
However, some of the information published at the time was incorrect, as it stated that the prosecution had made an offer to the businessman’s lawyers to close the case, when in fact the opposite happened.
On Tuesday, Agiusso’s chief of staff admitted in court that he circulated the wrong version to reporters.
“Did you try to verify (the information) from the prosecution?” the prosecutor at the trial asked a journalist from the newspaper El Mundo, which published the incorrect version. “All the facts contained in the articles had been verified,” he assured.
The trial will continue next Tuesday and the attorney general will have the final say.
