He has authorized the opening of an investigation to determine whether the acts carried out by could be “serious violations of international law, human rights and international humanitarian law,” as the Cadena SER has advanced Thursday and confirmed the country.
The investigation has been requested by the Prosecutor of the Human Rights and Democratic Memory, Dolores Delgado, and the chief prosecutor of the National Court and the Specialized Prosecutor for International Cooperation will be involved in it to determine whether the acts carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip Criminal, ”according to the Decree of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Delgado opened a file last June after receiving a report from the General Information Police Station of the National Police on the actions of the Israeli Army against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, which could be contrary to international law. The police document collected the testimony of protected witnesses and provided other evidence “on the actions and circumstances in the field”, which, according to the decree signed by the Attorney General, would constitute serious violations against human rights.
Spain, according to the decree signed by García Ortiz, has assumed the obligation to collaborate and channel the necessary assistance for the investigation of Israel’s attacks to Gaza, which legitimizes investigation within the framework of the Prosecutor’s Office to make the principle of international cooperation effective. The letter recalls the existence of two procedures followed before the Courts International, one in the International Court of Justice and another in the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court, with which Spain has an obligation to cooperate, in accordance with the laws and treaties signed by Spain. The decree also recalls that the United Nations Independent International Commission on the occupied Palestinian territory has described these facts of genocide, in application of the Convention for the Prevention and Sanction of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, and has urged Israel to fulfill its legal obligations of international law, while urging the States to cooperate with the investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court.
Article 23.4 a) of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) grants jurisdiction to the Spanish courts to investigate facts committed outside the Spanish territory that could be constitutive of crime of genocide, lesa humanity or against people and property protected in case of armed conflict, provided that the procedure is directed against a Spanish or against a foreign citizen who usually resides in Spain, or against a foreigner who will be in Spain would have been denied by the Spanish authorities. In turn, article 23.4 attributes jurisdiction to the Spanish courts regarding “any other crime whose persecution is imposed on a mandatory nature by a current treaty for Spain or by other normative acts of an international organization of which Spain is a member, in the assumptions and conditions that are determined in them”.
In an interview in the SER, Delgado said Thursday that there is a record of Spanish victims in the Gaza Strip. The Human Rights prosecutor recalled that Spanish courts cannot prosecute heads of state or government of other countries, this is only the international criminal court. “We could never accuse [Benjamín] Netanyahu. But what we have to do is seek indications and evidence of the possible commission of, for example, a genocide. We have to collect the facts and preserve that probative material. Then transfer those evidence to the Court, ”added Delgado.
