Judge Biedma asks Pedraz to summon Cintia Rocho over alleged plot to harm her

A new filing in the Díez case

Beatriz Biedma, the Badajoz judge who investigated David Sánchez, the brother of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has filed a written submission with Audiencia Nacional judge Santiago Pedraz. Pedraz is investigating an alleged scheme to obstruct court cases that affect the Socialist Party (PSOE), which was reportedly led by former PSOE organisation secretary Santos Cerdán and coordinated by former party member Leire Díez. In the filing, dated Tuesday, 3 November, Biedma argues that there are reasonable grounds for suspicion that former judge Luis Sáenz de Tejada belonged to that criminal organisation and was fully involved in its activity. She says the group aimed to destabilise the proceedings against David Sánchez, a case that ended with a disqualification sentence for prevaricación.

The request to hear Cintia Rocho

Biedma asks Pedraz to summon Cintia Rocho, the leader of a clan in Badajoz, as a witness and to hear her before deciding on Sáenz de Tejada's position in the case. According to a UCO report sent to the court on 6 October, Rocho told investigators that Sáenz de Tejada phoned her and said Biedma had to be eliminated. Rocho understood his remarks as an intention to inflict physical harm on the judge. Pedraz had rejected questioning Rocho about three weeks before this filing, pointing out that he had already summoned Sáenz de Tejada as an investigated person. In his own court statement, Sáenz de Tejada denied having contacted Rocho to propose an attack on Biedma, while Biedma said she felt fear but that it did not influence her rulings on David Sánchez.

Messages in the 'Vacaciones y viajes' group

The judge relies on a UCO report that places a WhatsApp group called 'Vacaciones y viajes' at the centre of the coordination. The group included businessmen Joaquín Parra and Javier Pérez Dolset along with Díez and Sáenz de Tejada, and its members exchanged 476 messages. Investigators described it as the main channel of communication for that line of action, while the former judge and Díez exchanged 176 messages on a one-to-one basis. Biedma argues that this volume shows continuous contact to carry out the strategy to destroy the case against David Sánchez, and that the period coincided with the peak of the investigation. She writes:

“There are indications of a concerted action aimed at gathering information, discrediting, pressuring and bringing about her removal from the case.”

Biedma also argues that messages seized from Díez, Sáenz de Tejada and Pérez Dolset show that third parties were supervising Díez's strategy to remove her from the case.

'Vacaciones y viajes' group476

Sáenz de Tejada and Díez, one-to-one176

'Vacaciones y viajes' group

476 messages

Sáenz de Tejada and Díez, one-to-one

176 messages

Data from the article text

Denials and complaints in Badajoz

Sáenz de Tejada has denied any link to a Facebook group called 'Independencia Judicial de Badajoz', through which Biedma says Rocho reached her. He says Biedma knew he had no such link because she had investigated that group in her own court. Two men named in the UCO report as having carried out surveillance of Biedma on the ex-judge's behalf deny the allegations against them. Their complaints, filed with Badajoz police on 9 and 14 October, accuse businessman Joaquín Parra, who had named them in his police statement. Pedraz returned those complaints to Badajoz, stating that the National Court is not the competent body to hear them.

Timeline of the filings

The UCO report on which Biedma's filing relies was sent on 6 October. The first complaint by one of the two men was lodged with Badajoz police on 9 October and the second on 14 October. Biedma's new filing followed on 3 November, about three weeks after Pedraz had turned down her request to summon Rocho. The filing was submitted by her sister, the lawyer Manuela Biedma. It also asks that the attempt by Sáenz de Tejada to join the case as a party be added to the court record.