The trial of Javier López Madrid and Commissioner Villarejo for the alleged harassment and assault of Dr. Elisa Pinto will not be held in February, as planned, due to a third postponement. The judge who was going to form the court, Paloma Pereda Riaza, leaves the court to go to the Provincial Court of Madrid and the replacement in time for February 2, the scheduled start date, and the rest of the sessions will not be possible, legal sources inform elDiario.es.
The events of which Villarejo and López Madrid are accused date back 12 years and represent a request from the Prosecutor’s Office for both defendants to be sentenced to 13 years in prison. The trial should have been held in October 2024, but a maneuver by the businessman’s lawyer, who presented several allegations to justify that he could not be present, forced it to be delayed for the first time. The traffic jam suffered by the Madrid justice system led to his appointment a year later. In October 2025 it could not be held either due to a prior indication from López Madrid’s lawyer.
The change of owner in Criminal Court number 10, where the hearing was going to be held starting next February 2, causes a new delay until the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027, the sources consulted calculate.
This week and last, a first trial was held in the National Court in which the same defendants, plus an collaborator of Villarejo, were responsible for an alleged crime of bribery related to the hiring of the commissioner by the businessman when the first was active, posted at the heart of State security. This trial, which was heard for sentencing on Tuesday, did not judge the actions of harassment and aggression, only the hiring of a public official, prohibited by law.
On January 12, a total of 169 appointments of judges were published in the Official State Gazette, among them that of Paloma Pereda Riaza, the judge who was going to judge harassment and aggression and who goes to the Provincial Court of Madrid. The established mechanism has not made it possible to find a judge who can take charge of the hearing against the commissioner and the businessman, an extensive hearing that was going to be held from Monday to Thursday practically throughout the month of February.
The first option was the voluntary request of other judges to occupy Prison number 10 in Madrid. The deadline recently ended without any candidates, so the second scenario was activated, consisting of another judge from a prison in the capital taking over at the same time as the one left by Paloma Paredes, receiving an extra financial assignment. In practice, this possibility is usually remote because the rest of the criminal courts also hold trials and the dates between them coincide.
Thus, the last option was to resort to a pool of substitute judges who are dedicated to making up for absences in the courts that are left without a regular magistrate. However, the shortage of judges in that pool and the demand from the Madrid courts for their services make it impossible for one of them to be assigned these days to Criminal Court number 10 in Madrid, explain the sources consulted.
Therefore, the trial of López Madrid and Villarejo for harassment, coercion and assault on Dr. Elisa Pinto will be presided over by the judge who will be appointed in the coming months as head of the court. The usual deadlines are three or four months for it to start working. If the pendency of court number 10 is taken into account, that is, the period of time between the trial appointments and its holding, approximately another four months would have to be added, which would lead to a new appointment no earlier than November 2026.
Source: www.eldiario.es
