Former Spanish Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos was sentenced today to 24 years and three months in prison for corruption related to public procurement contracts for surgical masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alongside Ábalos, who served in the cabinets of current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, his former advisor Koldo García was sentenced to 19 years and eight months in prison. Businessman Víctor de Aldama, who cooperated with the justice system and confessed to the crimes, received a suspended sentence of four and a half years. The Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office had previously requested a 24-year sentence for Ábalos during final arguments on May 4.
Once considered the right-hand man of Pedro Sánchez, the former minister was also a top official in the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE). Ábalos, García, and Aldama were tried in Madrid on charges of bribery, influence peddling, misappropriation of public funds, membership in a criminal organization, use of insider information, forgery, and malfeasance.
The prosecution argued that the trio leveraged the high-ranking positions held by Ábalos and García within the government and the PSOE to steer public bodies and state-owned companies into purchasing medical supplies during the pandemic in exchange for illegal commissions.
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This initial probe has triggered a broader, ongoing investigation into suspected corruption within the upper echelons of the PSOE, specifically concerning alleged kickbacks in public works contracts.
Ábalos served as Transport Minister between 2018 and 2021 and was expelled from the PSOE in 2024 following the emergence of the corruption allegations. He had been one of the closest political allies to Sánchez, forming part of the inner circle that propelled him to the leadership of the PSOE in 2017 and to the premiership in 2018.
Prime Minister Sánchez has since acknowledged the very serious indications of corruption involving former party officials, offering an apology to the Spanish public and party members, while maintaining that the PSOE is a clean organization with no indications of illegal financing.
