Police went to the EDA TV offices on Wednesday morning to detain Vito Zoppellari Quiles, but he was not there when the officers arrived. The operation took place at the channel’s Madrid address on the madrileña calle de Lagasca, where agents turned up with a search-and-capture order.
Quiles quickly turned the move into a public fight. On X, he said a judge had ordered his arrest after what he described as a mass complaint campaign linked to the circle around Sánchez, and he added that the Government was using the justice system against its rivals. He then posted a second message saying he had gone out to buy bread and would be back in 15 minutes.
The case matters now because the detention attempt lands in the middle of a web of five open judicial matters around the same figure, and each one points to a different front. One was opened in May, when Renfe took legal action over an alleged fraud and the case is being heard in Alicante. Another links him to a suspected hate crime against a disabled person who protested against Isabel Díaz Ayuso in 2024, with prosecutors seeking two years in prison and five years of disqualification from journalism. A separate file in Madrid concerns alleged disclosure of secrets and harassment against Beatriz Corredor, and Quiles appeared before the Juzgado de Instrucción número 23 of Madrid on 7 April.
Juan Gonzalo Ospina, his lawyer, confirmed the police visit to EL PAÍS and called it “una medida desproporcionada”. He said they could have informed him or the procurator, or gone to Quiles’ private home instead of the company address. Ospina also said he did not know which of the five cases the arrest order came from, and that gap is the key point left hanging after the morning operation.
That uncertainty is what gives the episode its weight. Quiles is also linked to the process in Sevilla before plaza 18, where a judge decided to investigate him for alleged insults and slander against Rubén Sánchez, and the private accusation seeks nine years in prison for three continued counts of slander plus two counts of public insult. Quiles says the order is part of a broader political campaign; his lawyer says the police chose the most disruptive route. What remains unresolved is not whether there is a detention order, but which of the open cases finally triggered it.
