Overview
- Judge Leopoldo Puente denied authorization for Ábalos to testify on 8 January before the Senate’s Koldo inquiry, citing the request’s late filing during a judicial holiday period and inviting a new petition with sufficient time to hear all parties.
- The magistrate also turned down Ábalos’s bid for a jury trial, ruling the case follows the Audiencia Nacional’s procedural track despite past aforamiento, which excludes trial by jury for these offenses.
- Ábalos’s legal team at Chabaneix Abogados Penalistas formally renounced his defense over fee disputes and asked the court to pause deadlines to avoid prejudice while new counsel is secured.
- The Congress board’s 10 December suspension of Ábalos’s parliamentary rights remains in force; he has asked to be reinstated at least until the Supreme Court hears his detention appeal.
- Anticorruption prosecutors seek 24 years in prison and multimillion-euro fines, while Ábalos and his former adviser Koldo García have been held in Soto del Real since 27 November; the Supreme Court’s Penal Chamber will review his custody on 15 January.