Overview
- Provincial judges found no current risk of undue delay and cited defendants’ and accusers’ rights to maintain different approaches at trial.
- Defense teams, including David Sánchez’s, opposed the split, warning it would complicate scheduling for a trial now set for late May after an earlier February date was moved.
- The accusers—PP, Vox, Manos Limpias, Hazte Oír, Abogados Cristianos, Iustitia Europa and Liberum—may act independently in court while remaining bound by the joint brief they filed.
- The decision reverses a July 2024 order by investigating judge Beatriz Biedma that unified the accusers to prevent delays during the instruction phase.
- Former provincial chief Miguel Ángel Gallardo resigned his deputy seat and lost aforamiento, and Sánchez faces a three-year prison request on charges including prevarication, influence peddling and illegal appointment.