# Spain’s Supreme Court convicts attorney general over secret leak case
Spain’s Supreme Court on the event date convicted Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz of revealing reserved information, handing him a two-year disqualification from office and a fine of 7,200 euros. The decision is final and will force him out of the top job at the country’s public prosecution service once formally notified.
The case centers on the leak of an email linked to the tax-fraud case involving Alberto González Amador, the partner of Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso. According to RTVE, the court’s ruling says García Ortiz disclosed reserved data in connection with that email, which included an admission of two tax offences. The judgment was announced before the full written reasoning was released, so some of the exact legal reasoning remained to be detailed later.
What is already clear is the weight of the sanction. García Ortiz, who took the post in July 2022, was also ordered to pay costs and to compensate González Amador with 10,000 euros for moral damage. The RTVE account says five of the seven judges found him guilty under article 417.1 of the penal code, while two dissenting judges disagreed with the outcome. The ruling also acquitted him of the other charges that had been brought.
The case has been politically sensitive from the start because it places the country’s top prosecutor in the dock over conduct tied to a figure close to one of Spain’s most prominent opposition politicians. RTVE noted that García Ortiz had denied leaking the email during the trial and used the phrase “la verdad no se filtra; la verdad se defiende” to defend himself. The court has not yet fully explained whether the conviction rests on the leak of the email itself or on a subsequent press note that described it, though the prosecutor had always said he was responsible for that note.
The ruling also matters institutionally. As attorney general, García Ortiz occupied a role that is supposed to stand above partisan conflict and lend authority to prosecutions in politically charged cases. A conviction in a case involving the handling of confidential material therefore goes beyond one man’s career. It raises questions about the line between prosecutorial communication and unlawful disclosure, and about how Spain’s judiciary will manage future conflicts where legal and political pressure overlap.
The final sentence will also set up the next stage of the process, because García Ortiz may seek annulment before trying to appeal to the Constitutional Court. For now, though, the consequence is immediate: Spain’s highest court has decided that the country’s attorney general must leave office because of the way he handled secret information in one of the country’s most watched corruption-linked disputes.
