Testimony from four Spanish National Police officers at the ongoing trial of the 'Kitchen' case has confirmed that covert surveillance operations were conducted against Rosalía Iglesias, wife of former ruling People's Party (PP) treasurer Luis Bárcenas, without any judicial oversight. Officers from two separate units — the Central Operational Support Unit (UCAO) and Internal Affairs — have acknowledged running simultaneous, uncoordinated surveillance operations in 2013, both acting on orders from senior commanders and neither authorised by or reported to the judge or prosecutors then investigating Bárcenas over the broader Gürtel political corruption scandal. The Kitchen case centres on allegations that senior Interior Ministry officials under former minister Jorge Fernández Díaz — who faces up to 15 years in prison — orchestrated the espionage operation to retrieve potentially damaging material about PP party financing before it could be used against the government.