Spain’s Supreme Court Jails Former PSOE Official Cerdán in Bribery Probe

Spain’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered former Socialist Party organisation secretary Santos Cerdán to be held in pre-trial detention without bail after he testified as a suspect in the so-called Koldo corruption probe.

Magistrate Leopoldo Puente, acting on a request from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, ruled that remanding Cerdán to Madrid’s Soto del Real prison was the only effective way to prevent the possible destruction or alteration of evidence. The judge charged the ex-lawmaker with bribery, influence peddling and membership of a criminal organisation, making him the first of the Supreme Court’s defendants in the case to be jailed.

Investigators from the Guardia Civil’s UCO unit allege that Cerdán headed a network that rigged public-works contracts in return for kickbacks. Puente’s order estimates the illicit proceeds attributable to the former party official at more than €5 million, drawing on contract volumes and audio recordings recovered from former transport-ministry aide Koldo García, another key suspect alongside ex-transport minister José Luis Ábalos.

During roughly an hour of questioning Cerdán denied receiving any commissions and portrayed himself as a victim of a political “witch-hunt” prompted by his role in negotiating coalition deals for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The detention deepens the political fallout for the governing PSOE as the Supreme Court continues to assess whether more figures benefited from the alleged scheme.