Since the beginning of this year, Judge Adolfo Carretero has investigated Ana Pardo de Vera for a crime of coercion in relation to the confrontation she had with Bertrand Ndongo, in January 2025, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco that was hosted by the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.
After the journalist gave a statement as a defendant on January 9, the head of the Investigative Court number 47 of Madrid agreed to listen to a total of three witnesses proposed by her defense.
They are a man and two women, all of them journalists who were at the doors of the official event organized by the Government of Pedro Sánchez, when the scuffle took place between the corporate and Institutional Relations director of “Público” and this worker from “Periodista Digital.” The instructor has summoned them on March 31 to take their statements in the Plaza de Castilla courts (Madrid).
In addition, Judge Carretero agreed to commission a court expert to validate the raw video of the moment that was recorded by Ndongo’s cameraman and that captures the moment in which the confrontation they had took place.
The instructor made this decision after her lawyer challenged the sequences of images that Ndongo initially attached with his complaint and which are the ones he shared through his profile on X.
According to the legal sources familiar with the case consulted, Ndongo’s legal representation has already sent this material in its entirety to the court.
As this newspaper was able to learn from the aforementioned sources, Pardo de Vera admitted in court that he snatched the microphone from Ndongo, after the latter approached him insistently, and alleged that his reaction was due to the state of anxiety and nervousness that he was going through that day, given that – he claimed – he had received threats through networks.
On January 9, two private security guards from the contemporary art museum also testified and confirmed that they had heard the journalist say “gorilla.” She, for her part, declared that at no time did she use this expression during the confrontation between them. However, he admitted that he had told him: “You have to be stupid to be black and a fascist.”
Furthermore, a civil guard who witnessed part of the disagreement confirmed in her statement before the judge that she saw how the journalist had the microphone in her hands.
As this newspaper already reported at the time, the magistrate took the step of charging the journalist after hearing Ndongo as the complainant and seeing the recordings of the moment that were shared by the complainant himself through his profiles on social networks.
Previously, the Madrid Hate Prosecutor’s Office had ruled on this case, requesting as an investigative measure that a letter be issued to the Provincial Information Brigade of the National Police in the capital in order for it to prepare a report highlighting various aspects of the confrontation.
Specifically, the police report analyzes “the concurrent polarization factors, in particular, the date on which the reported events occurred, the social context in which they took place and, where appropriate, the reactions and repercussions they gave rise to, the nature and forcefulness of the language used.”
The agent who authored the report also had to reflect “the previous relationship between the parties involved, their connection with extremist movements and whether there is a request for apology or repentance by the parties involved.”
The horizon of the case
The reliable legal sources consulted by LA RAZÓN indicate that the key moment of the case will come once Judge Adolfo Carretero has on his table the conclusions of the expert analysis of the video that shows the confrontation and the approved testimonies are carried out.
It will then be when this magistrate will have to decide if he considers the facts insufficient to move forward and orders the dismissal of the proceedings. Or, on the contrary, he prosecutes Ana Pardo de Vera for a crime of coercion against Ndongo (it is for the illegal act for which the instruction is being followed). With the transformation of the case to an abbreviated procedure, the time would come for the issuance of the accusation or file documents.
The public version of the journalist
Beyond the statements that Pardo de Vera made about the controversial matter in court, accompanied by her lawyer, she also spoke on several television programs, where it is common for her to collaborate as a talk show host, about what happened.
The journalist maintains that the reality is that she was the victim of an attempted attack by Ndongo. In a television space, he maintained that he told him “exactly”: “Pick up the microphone, not as the journalist that you are, but as you always do, crouching before the fascists.”