Gustavo Arístegui./ Photo: RTVE
The Diplomat. Madrid
The former Spanish Ambassador to India, Gustavo de Arístegui, has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a leave of absence of almost a month from New Delhi, after the National Court issued an edict last week, in which the judge De la Mata investigates him on four crimes.
The Diplomat has had access to an “urgent” telegram sent by Arístegui on 14 January to Madrid, a day after his supposed case of commissions along with the deputy Pedro Gómez de la Serna had gone through judicial proceedings, in which he asks for a leave from 21 January to 16 February inclusive. In order to do so, he resorts to three working days and 7 for personal affairs that he still had of 2015, and to 9 days of personal affairs of 2016.
Diplomatic sources told The Diplomat that, with this leave, Arístegui intends to organize his legal defence facing the more than predictable summons to appear before the National Court some time soon. The former ambassador has continued sending telegrams to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs throughout January despite of his irrevocable resignation on 14 December, when the Government accepted his cessation four days later, according to Tiempo on its last issue.
The aforementioned magazine published a telegram sent by the Spanish Embassy in New Delhi on 8 January, classified as “confidential”, which has Arístegui’s signature. The document has four pages and it includes several cases of subrogated maternity that the diplomatic legation has managed in 2015 (click here to see it).
A spokesperson of Foreign Affairs justified the fact that Arístegui keeps signing telegrams from New Delhi in January by arguing that all ambassadors who have been dismissed have “a month of courtesy” to organize their move to Spain and to say goodbye to the authorities of the country where they had been assigned. That period is not included in any law, but it is a common practice assumed by Foreign Affairs many years ago to benefit its diplomatic staff.
Despite the fact that Arístegui’s resignation and subsequent cessation is a fact with few precedents and has caused a great stir among the media, the department led by José Manuel García-Margallo granted him the month of grace to prepare for his return to Spain.
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The National Court started investigating Arístegui last week on four crimes
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In December, the Spanish Ambassador to India was involved, along with the PP deputy Pedro Gómez de la Serna, in a case for the presumed receipt of commissions in exchange of management for Spanish companies. His resignation took place a week before the election of 20-D.
The diplomat is being investigated, on one hand, by the Tax Agency, since the Office of Conflict of Interests started proceedings after the first news were published by El Mundo about its supposed receipt of commissions. On the other hand, the National Court started a criminal investigation last week, along with five other people, on the presumed crimes of corruption in international transactions, bribery, money laundering and criminal organization. The judge De la Mata ordered the search of their residences, except in the case of the deputy De la Serna for having parliamentary immunity, and of six societies connected to the plot.
