Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been formally indicted on three criminal charges in a high-profile investigation involving suspected money laundering tied to the public bailout of an airline company. Judicial sources confirmed that the former leader has been summoned to testify as an official suspect before the investigating judge on June 2.
The investigation, spearheaded by Spain’s National Court (Audiência Nacional), centers on alleged financial irregularities within the airline Plus Ultra. Authorities are currently tracing the whereabouts of a €53 million pandemic-era public bailout package granted to the company.
According to sources from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Police’s economic crime unit (UDEF), investigators suspect that the state rescue funds may have been used to launder illicit capital originating from corruption networks in Venezuela.
The legal net has been tightening around the airline for several months. In late November, law enforcement raided the company’s headquarters, resulting in the arrests of Plus Ultra’s Chairman, Julio Martínez, and Chief Executive Officer, Roberto Roselli.
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The anti-corruption probe escalated dramatically as the National Police’s Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit executed coordinated raids on Zapatero’s private office alongside three other commercial entities.
The 65-year-old politician, who led the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and served as Spain’s Prime Minister between 2004 and 2011, is facing charges of criminal organization, influence peddling, and document falsification.
Local media reports emphasize the historic and highly damaging nature of the development, noting it marks the first time in the 50 years since the restoration of Spanish democracy that a former head of government has been criminally indicted by the country’s justice system.
