The complaint against Sáenz de Tejada

Former judge Luis José Sáenz de Tejada, who is formally under investigation in the case involving Leire Díez, has denied following judge Beatriz Biedma by car on 8 October. Biedma investigated David Sánchez, the brother of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and had testified as a victim before the Audiencia Nacional that same day. In her complaint to the national police in Extremadura, she said a white car pulled alongside her vehicle on the road from the airport to her home in Badajoz, and that one of her daughters noticed it. She said Sáenz de Tejada was in the car, and she feared a tracking device had been fitted to her vehicle. The complaint places the incident at about 19:15 on 8 October.

His written defence

In a written submission to judge Santiago Pedraz, Sáenz de Tejada says he spent the whole day of 8 October at his sister's house in Uceda, Guadalajara, about 450 kilometres away. He says three witnesses, his sister, her husband and their niece, were with him that day, and that his phones and laptop could be geolocated at that address. He cites a video recorded in a room of the house, which he says started at 17:46 and ran for 23 minutes and 36 seconds, and he has supplied screenshots showing the location. He calls the complaint a new false accusation and argues that the identification was made by a minor who could not note the number plate or identify anyone else in the car.

“It is evident that I could not have reached the place indicated in the complaint.”

He also points to what he describes as long-running hostility from Biedma, which he dates to 2015, when he challenged her as a judge in his own case.

Background and legal position

Judge Pedraz has formally investigated Sáenz de Tejada for alleged criminal organisation, calumny and crimes against moral integrity, on the suspicion that he acted to intimidate the judge. The Guardia Civil links him to the alleged scheme investigated in the Leire Díez case. He was expelled from the judiciary after a conviction for gender-based violence against a former partner, a sentence reported as nearly three years in prison. He has long pursued claims of corruption among judges in Badajoz, and he presents the complaint against him as retaliation for those claims.

Timeline and next steps

The dispute turns on a single day. Biedma testified before the National Court on 8 October, the same day her complaint places the tailing. Sáenz de Tejada says his video began at 17:46 and that he finished recording after 18:00, while the complaint puts the incident at about 19:15. The complaint describes the car as white and says its registration could not be read.

Sáenz de Tejada is due to testify as an investigated person before Pedraz on 28 October. The Interior Ministry has assigned Biedma a police escort, after she said she feared for her own safety and that of her daughters. Biedma wrote that she did not know how the man had learned she would be making that journey at that time. He has offered to have his devices geolocated to verify his account.