Case involving new PP leader elevated to Supreme Court

The judge overseeing the case of the Master’s degree of the new People’ Party (PP) leader Pablo Casado has called for the Spanish Supreme Court to investigate it. The Supreme Court is the only one that can judge members of the Spanish Congress.

Carmen Rodríguez-Medel says she sees evidence of the crimes of administrative impropriety and bribes. Over the previous weeks, the judge has spoken to witnesses and other people being investigated. Once the information has been collected, she has asked for the Supreme Court to get involved, as it is beyond her judicial jurisdiction, Casados being a member of Congress.

Now, the high court will have to ask the prosecutor's office to position itself in a report on the competence of the Supreme Court and the content of the investigation.

No evidence Casado did degree

Back in April, Casado said that he did the course between 2008 and 2009 without going to class or doing any exams. How? Casado said the director of the master’s, Enrique Álvarez Conde, managed to validate him in 18 of the 22 subjects, and he passed the rest by writing four essays.

But now, the Rey Juan Carlos University has admitted that they don't have "any document" to certify that the new PP leader actually did those essays or "any track record" to prove that the works were submitted for evaluation.

Scandal in the party

Judge Rodríguez-Medel  is the same judge who oversaw the case against major PP figure Cristina Cifuentes.

The leader of the Madrid regional government resigned in April after CCTV footage showing her shoplifting came to light.

Her resignation came a month after a Spanish newspaper disclosed irregularities in her master’s degree. Subsequent reports put into question that she had handed in and defended her master’s thesis, and a certificate that she presented was deemed as fake by the professors who allegedly signed it, as well as by the university rector himself.