Judge Biedma asks court to charge ex-judge Sáenz de Tejada over alleged plot against her
Badajoz judge Beatriz Biedma has asked Audiencia Nacional judge Santiago Pedraz to question former judge Luis José Sáenz de Tejada as an investigated party and to hear four witnesses, including a woman described as a member of the Rocho clan.
A request to question the ex-judge as a suspect
Beatriz Biedma, the judge who has handled the case against David Sánchez, the brother of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has asked Audiencia Nacional judge Santiago Pedraz to take the statement of former judge Luis José Sáenz de Tejada as an investigated party. Her brief, filed through her sister and lawyer Manuela Biedma, calls his testimony "nuclear" for clarifying his role, his contacts and his part in the alleged criminal organisation. The brief states that Leire Díez, a former PSOE member, recruited Sáenz de Tejada because of his earlier attempts to discredit Biedma, a conclusion the UCO reached in one of its latest reports to Central Court 5. It adds that after the David Sánchez case began, he acted directly and persistently against the judge, following objectives set by the group and handwritten notes seized by police.
Witnesses and documents requested
The brief asks for four witnesses: Cintia Rocho, lawyers Ángel Martín Carrillo and Juan José Collado Barriga, and businessman Joaquín Parra Páez. Rocho is described as an alleged member of a Badajoz drug-trafficking clan known as Los Rocho, and she told the Guardia Civil's UCO that Sáenz de Tejada had contacted her to help "eliminar" Biedma. Parra is a businessman investigated for hydrocarbon fraud who, according to ABC, introduced Sáenz de Tejada to Leire Díez and her partner Pérez Dolset. The four reportedly met in what Leire Díez herself called a "piso franco del PSOE" and planned ways to bring down the investigation into David Sánchez. The brief also asks the court to add every complaint, grievance and written submission Sáenz de Tejada filed against Biedma with the Prosecutor's Office, the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and other bodies between May 2024 and October 2025. After those meetings he lodged several complaints against her and tried to join the David Sánchez case as a lawyer to seek her recusal, an attempt that did not succeed.
Who Sáenz de Tejada is
Sáenz de Tejada worked at courts in Puertollano and Ciudad Real before the criminal court in Badajoz sentenced him in 2017 to two years and nine months in prison for habitual psychological violence and three counts of threats against his former partner, also a judge and the mother of their two children. The couple divorced in January 2013, and she filed a complaint some months later. The General Council of the Judiciary ordered his expulsion in 2019, and the Supreme Court confirmed it in 2022. Sáenz de Tejada has since described a "mafia" in the Badajoz judiciary and says he was removed from the bench for denouncing it, according to ABC. Biedma, who had investigated him for gender violence against his wife, testified in the week of 5 October 2026 as an injured party and said she had felt distressed after strangers came to her children's school.
- Divorce from his former partner, also a judge
- Badajoz criminal court No 1 sentences him to two years and nine months in prison
- General Council of the Judiciary orders his expulsion from the judiciary
- Supreme Court confirms the expulsion
- Biedma testifies as an injured party
Sáenz de Tejada's denial
In his own brief to Pedraz, Sáenz de Tejada rejects Rocho's account to the Guardia Civil and on television. He wrote:
Never, through any medium, did I contact or speak with Ms Cintia Rocho.
Rocho says he approached her after she posted a comment on a Facebook page that criticises a lack of judicial independence in Badajoz. He says he has no link to that page and that its administrators are identified in court proceedings 341/2024 in Almendralejo. He also accuses the UCO authors of accepting Rocho's version without basic checks, and he alleges forgery of a public document against them and Rocho.
What happens next
The requests are now before Pedraz, who is investigating an alleged offence of calumnies (calumnias) of which Biedma is presumed to have been the victim. The request for complaints is limited to those tied to the 7 April 2025 demonstration Sáenz de Tejada promoted, reportedly more than 30 complaints, his recusal bid and an attempt by Patricia Sáenz de Tejada Vallejo to join the case. The requests are pending before the court.
