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Diario Euskadi

Preliminary Hearing on April 20 for Osakidetza OPE Case

The Provincial Court of Álava will hear the two remaining defendants, a doctor and an opposition candidate, accused of revealing secrets.

Generic image of a gavel on a wooden desk in a courtroom, with blurred legal documents in the background.
IA

Generic image of a gavel on a wooden desk in a courtroom, with blurred legal documents in the background.

The Provincial Court of Álava will hold a preliminary hearing on April 20 for the Osakidetza OPE case, where a doctor and a candidate face prison sentences for revealing secrets, with a potential agreement on the horizon.

The Provincial Court of Álava is scheduled to hold a preliminary hearing, not a trial, on April 20 concerning the Osakidetza OPE (Public Employment Offer) case, involving a charge of revealing secrets. During this hearing, the Prosecutor's Office of Álava is seeking a two-year prison sentence for a doctor and a one-year sentence for an opposition candidate. Preliminary hearings typically address matters such as the admissibility of evidence, potential rights violations, and the possibility of reaching plea agreements.
In this specific case, the Prosecutor's Office deems it “probable” that a plea agreement can be reached, which is why it requested the court to summon the parties for a preliminary hearing to ascertain their positions. These two individuals are the sole remaining defendants in connection with the leaked exams from the Osakidetza OPE 2016-2017.
Following the Provincial Court of Álava's decision in September 2024 to dismiss the case against 17 of the 19 investigated individuals, the Instruction Court number 2 of Vitoria concluded its investigation. It subsequently issued an order to open oral proceedings against a doctor, who was then the head of service at Donostia Hospital, specializing in plastic, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery, and against an opposition candidate, who was the romantic partner of the accused doctor's son.
The Public Prosecutor's Office considers the doctor to be the perpetrator of a crime of revealing secrets, causing serious harm to the public interest or to third parties. The accused woman, on the other hand, is believed to have committed an attempted crime of revealing secrets, also causing serious harm to the public interest or to third parties. In addition to the prison sentences, the Prosecutor's Office is requesting a five-year special disqualification from public employment or office for the doctor. For the opposition candidate, it seeks an eight-year loss of eligibility for public subsidies and aid, and the right to enjoy tax and social security benefits and incentives.
The alleged irregularities in this OPE, in which 72,500 people participated, led to the resignation of the counselor, Jon Darpón, and prompted Osakidetza to repeat five exams across three categories. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office's assessment, around March 5, 2018, the accused, then head of service at Donostia Hospital, was commissioned by the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP) to prepare 50 questions for the theoretical exam in plastic, aesthetic, and reconstructive surgery. To this end, the medical professional, who held the status of a public official, signed a confidentiality agreement.
The prosecutor asserts that before May 20, 2018, the date the exams were held, the doctor leaked the questions he had prepared to the accused, an opposition candidate in the aforementioned specialty and “who at least at that date was the romantic partner of the accused's son.” As a result, the prosecutor continues, the accused correctly answered 48 out of 50 questions, “thereby obtaining a total score of 72 points out of 100, significantly higher than the rest of the candidates.” Her exam raised suspicions from the tribunal president, a member of the IVAP, who advised the accused to withdraw from the OPE. However, the accused continued until May 22, when she sent an email renouncing her participation in the OPE.

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