The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has responded on Tuesday to the stir raised after the crime of sexual aggression for which it had been convicted a year ago. The Plenary of the Government Body of the Judges has unanimously agreed an institutional declaration in which it warns that the review by higher courts of what was resolved by lower courts “is part of the normality of the rule of law”, and shows their support to the magistrates of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that revoked the prior conviction of the soccer player to four years and means of prison imposed by the Provincial Court of prison. Barcelona. “The protection and support for victims, especially crimes against sexual freedom, does not imply renouncing the presumption of innocence, which is a fundamental right,” says the text approved by the CGPJ.
The statement agreed by the president of the Council, Isabel Perelló, and the 20 vowels does not expressly quote María Jesús Montero, who last weekend described as “shame” the acquittal of Alves and questioned that the presumption of innocence prevails “on the testimony of young women who denounce powerful people.” However, organ sources indicate that the statement is an answer to the words of the first vice president of the Government and Minister of Finance. The text that has come forward unanimously has been proposed by Perelló, after the conservative vowels presented a much harder version than most progressives refused to support. Meanwhile, the Government has backed number two of the Executive and the PSOE, very criticized Federation in which Juan Espadas has relieved as general secretary. “The same bewilderment was expressed as a large part of the company felt when he learned a sentence, in this case of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, radically different from that of the Provincial Court of Barcelona in less than a year,” government spokeswoman, Pilar Alegría, has come out in defense of Montero, Pilar Alegría. “Respect [por las resoluciones judiciales] Nor is he antagonistic to comment on them, ”he said.
The definitive version is quite generic to avoid entering a clash with the government, as often happened during the mandate of the previous CGPJ. This Tuesday’s statement focuses on supporting the magistrates who have signed the acquittal of Alves and claim the presumption of innocence. “The resource system is established to seek the success of the ultimate decision. The judgment of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia does not escape this principle and is also subject to the review procedures provided for in the procedural laws,” the Council warns.
The plenary also claims “the professionalism and technical training” of the judges who have intervened in the case, both of the Provincial Court of Barcelona and the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, and only sends a message of prudence for politicians: “It is the responsibility of the political representatives, when they disagree with a judicial resolution, to make their legitimate right to critic Council, whose pronouncement comes a day after the one signed by the four associations of judges and the three of prosecutors, who reacted to the words of the minister demanding “institutional responsibility.” Criticism shared by the opposition and judges and prosecutors have forced the government to leave for the second day closing ranks with the first vice president. “This government has always expressed its respect for all judicial resolutions,” said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who has observed that “not only the authorities that are part of the Executive Power, but also the legislative and judicial Alves “With the purpose of a maximum awareness of society, towards the victims of the scourge of violence against women.” The minister, who was a member of the CGPJ and president of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, has influenced the attention that administrations have to devote to resolutions “of a maximum social sensitivity” such as that of the Alves case so that victims of sexual violence “do not feel unprotected” so that “do not lose the confidence of the institutions.”
New postponement of the Supreme Key Room Presidents
On the other hand, the president of the CGPJ has returned to withdraw from the agenda of the Plenary, that she herself had decided to include to the surprise of the majority of the vowels, since the two groups, the conservative and the progressive, have not reached an agreement on who wants them to occupy those squares or the possibility of a short -term pact because there was no formal negotiation underway. It is the second time that Perelló incorporates the vote of the presidencies of the Second (penal) and third (contentious-administrative) to then take them out before the absence of a pact. Organ sources point out that the president and vowels have agreed that the two blocks will negotiate in the coming weeks so that both presidents can vote in April or, like afternoon, in May.
Perelló last February, after the progressive and conservative groups agreed the appointment of almost 40 senior judicial positions, including the presidencies of the First and fourth room of the Supreme, but they were not considered key, whose presidencies are also vacant and that Perelló had incorporated into the agenda. In the case of the Plenary this Tuesday, Perelló’s decision has been further surprised if it fits the vowels, since there has been no negotiation between the groups that could lead to agreement for those places. Organ sources interpret that president’s movement as an attempt to pressure the vowels to accelerate the negotiation, but some members consulted also fear that the repetition of this situation damages the image of the organ.
Board members admit their bewilderment by the movements of the president and even some progressive vowels warn of a certain discomfort because Perelló is being unmarked from the position that the majority of vowels of this sector maintains, which defends Ana Ferrer’s candidacy for the second (penal) room and Pilar Teso for the third (contentious-administrative). The progressives defend their candidacies for their curricula, but also for being women, an issue that has focused the debate on appointments because it establishes that no sex can have a representation lower than 40% “on the positions of representation and decision.”
Perelló, however, according to sources of the organ, does not defend any of these two candidates and is in favor of appointing the two candidates of the conservatives, Andrés Martínez Arrieta in the Criminal Chamber and Lucas in that of the contentious, two magistrates considered of moderate profile. The intention of the president, according to several sources, is that the full vote to both, which would mean a assignment by the progressives that the majority of vowels of this group are not willing to accept.
These designations need a minimum of 13 votes, a figure that does not gather either of the two blocks, so it is necessary to reach a pact for each square. Members consulted from both sectors agree to highlight their willingness to negotiate, but maintain opposite positions that, admit, can make any possibility of consensus to ship.
The strategy of the conservatives, in the absence of agreement to move forward their proposals, is to park the designation of these two presidencies because both rooms are already chaired in functions for their for the appointment. This sector refuses to enter a negotiation that implies accepting one of the two candidates proposed by the progressives, considering them related to the government.
The plenary has unanimously agreed to the appointment of Jesús María Chamorro González as president of the Superior Court of Justice of Asturias, Celso Rodríguez Padrón as president of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid and Manuel Luna Carbonell as president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Murcia. In his session today, the government body of the judges has made another 18 appointments, all of them unanimously and corresponding to 2 presidencies of contentious-administrative and social rooms of different higher courts of justice, to the presidencies of the provincial hearings of Zamora and Huelva and four charges of the military jurisdiction.
With the designations made today, the CGPJ has made a total of 102 appointments – both in the ordinary jurisdiction as in the military jurisdiction – since the beginning of its mandate on July 25.
