A witness told Spain’s anti-corruption prosecutors that jewels linked to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero were delivered in 2019 as alleged payment for Saudi rail contracts. The statement values them at more than €4 million.
Dated in Jeddah on 10 September, the statement puts the value of the jewellery above €4 million. Its author, a former procurement executive for a Spanish company in Saudi Arabia, told the Fiscalía Anticorrupción that the pieces were delivered to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2019, though she could not verify the exact date. The submission was sent to prosecutors from Jeddah in late September 2026. The jewels, more than 60 pieces, were found by the UDEF police unit in a safe at the former prime minister’s office.
The witness connects the alleged payment to construction contracts from 2011 to 2017 and to a maintenance contract handled by the Consorcio Hispano-Árabe from 2018. She alleges that the jewellery represented a 2.5% commission tied to infrastructure maintenance. The maintenance work began while Pedro Sánchez was prime minister, extending the allegation beyond the railway’s construction period. Haramain is the high-speed rail link between Medina and Mecca, awarded to a Spanish consortium after Zapatero left office.
Reports on the statement describe a collection valued at more than €4 million. Among the pieces are an 18-carat white-gold necklace with diamonds and two Zambian emeralds valued at about €278,000; a necklace with 13 Thai sapphires and diamonds valued at about €220,000; a ruby piece valued at about €155,000; and an emerald bracelet valued at about €95,000. These are reported estimates of the jewellery’s value, not an established amount for any commission. La Gaceta de la Iberosfera reported the estimates, while El Nacional described the witness’s claim that the jewels were connected to the rail contracts.
Zapatero gives a different account. He says twelve of the most valuable pieces were a gift from Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz during the king’s visit to Spain on 18 and 19 June 2007, when the two met amid agreements to create a Saudi-Spanish infrastructure fund. The witness describes the jewels as payment by the company that benefited from the maintenance award. Political and business contacts over Saudi infrastructure therefore date back to 2007, while the construction and maintenance contracts cited in the allegation came later. A previous report covered the earlier account of the alleged link to the rail project.
The witness says she cannot confirm the day or circumstances of delivery because she had already been removed from her post and from railway activity by then. Her statement gives 2019 as the year of delivery but no exact date. The account challenges Zapatero’s argument that the alleged tax offence has prescribed, while remaining an allegation submitted to prosecutors. Fiscalía Anticorrupción is examining the material; the statement itself does not establish an illegal payment, and no court ruling has determined the jewels’ origin.
The statement also claims that business in Saudi Arabia exceeded $10 billion and says four people whose identities were provided to the Fiscalía could corroborate the information. It refers to a former senior state rail-infrastructure official as someone familiar with the alleged network, and says contract procedures and payments were known within the Spanish consortium and among senior Spanish officials. The witness’s account and the alleged 2.5% commission are part of the material submitted to prosecutors.
