The director general of Spain's Civil Guard, Mercedes González, testified as a suspect before National Court judge Santiago Pedraz on Thursday in a probe into alleged prevarication and obstruction of justice, denying she directed the force's investigative unit on cases affecting the government.
González told the court she felt targeted by former Socialist Party official Santos Cerdán and acknowledged two meetings with Leire Díez, a woman who presented herself as a freelance journalist, during which Díez raised the case of a Civil Guard commander under investigation. Prosecutors suspect Díez leveraged access to González to push for disciplinary action against agents.
The inquiry also examines Manuel Llamas, the Civil Guard's deputy operational director, who admitted asking investigators not to be "proactive" in judicial cases, though he denied ordering subordinates to stand aside in matters linked to government figures. González's hearing was delayed from Thursday to Friday after Llamas's extended deposition.