The judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge has charged smuggling crimes and participation by complicity in a crime against humanity or genocide to the president of Sidenor, José Antonio Jainaga Gómezand two other of its directors for the sale of steel batches to the company Israel Military Industries (IMSI) with full knowledge that it is a weapons manufacturerboth heavy and light, and that the material sold was going to be used for the manufacture of weapons. The accusation was made known in the midst of the Talgo purchase process by the consortium led by the Basque company.
According to the magistrate, the sale of steel would have been carried out swithout having requested the corresponding authorization from the Government and without registering in the corresponding registryas stated in an official letter from the General Information Commissioner’s Office dated September 10.
The three investigated in this procedure, which began following a complaint from the Association Palestine Community of Catalonia-Elyhave been summoned to testify as defendants before the judge next November 12.
In his resolution, the magistrate maintains that The events that occurred in Gaza are in the public domain both by the information published daily in the press and on television and by the provisional classification as a crime attributed to these events by the International Criminal Court and the complaints presented by the UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, and by UNRWA, among other people and United Nations agencies.
Hence, the facts investigated are, in his opinion, constitutive of a smuggling crime contemplated in the Organic Law of Repression of Smuggling and another of participation by complicity in a crime against humanity of articles 29 and 607 bis of the Penal Code or, alternatively, of complicity in a crime of genocide of article 607 of the same legal text. The head of the Central Court of Instruction number 1 considers that the events are also attributable to the commercial company Clerbil SL, which holds the position of sole administrator of Sidenor Holdings Europe.
On the contrary, he understands that it is not appropriate at the moment to consider as a legal entity investigated the commercial company Sidenor Aceros Especiales SLU given the active role of the workers of this company and their contribution to the public complaintas well as to prevent the continuation of the allegedly criminal activity.
In this case, the magistrate applies Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and the transposition law 2/2023, of February 20, regulating the protection of people who report regulatory infractions and the fight against corruption, particularly to the articles that extend theProtection of legal entities that may have the status of informantsa condition that, in this case, according to the judge, is fulfilled in the interest of workers through the protection of society referred to, which will not be affected by the precautionary measures nor by the possible penalties that could be imposed on legal entities.
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