• Courts.Judges and prosecutors call for the resignation of Carlos Lesmes for his "obstructionist" plan against the coronavirus
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The Ministry of Justice , the General Council of the Judiciary and the State Attorney General's Office have designed this Friday a joint plan to paralyze judicial activity in the country in the face of the imminent declaration of the state of alarm.

Through a statement released by the three institutions, it is agreed to keep only the celebration of minimum services similar to the strike days, such as actions with causes with prisoners or detainees, guard services in matters of gender violence or urgent actions in prison surveillance matter. It is a battery of "essential services" that will be guaranteed with the aim of avoiding irreparable harm to citizens. They will be "completed" or "adapted" depending on the agreement adopted this Saturday by the Council of Ministers.

Hours before making this joint initiative public, the Permanent Commission of the Council, chaired by Carlos Lesmes, agreed that these measures should come into force already in the Community of Madrid, the Basque Country, Haro (La Rioja) and Igualada (Barcelona) against virulence with which the Covid-19 virus has acted in these areas. The position of the judges' governing body regarding the coronavirus has been widely criticized in recent days by judges, prosecutors and other legal operators who have considered the measures initially adopted by the Council insufficient and reckless.

The judges took the initiative

In addition, in an extraordinary meeting held this Friday by the members, the Council agreed that the presidents of the Superior Courts of Justice, Provincial Courts as well as senior judges adopt "the appropriate measures regarding the cessation of activity in the judicial offices where they are located. their respective headquarters, and closing and / or eviction of the same in case it proceeded ".

In this sense, this morning the president of the National Court, José Ramón Navarro , decided to suspend all trials and judicial proceedings for the next 15 days from Monday, the suspension of which had been requested by the presidents of the Chambers of Criminal, Contentious, Social and by the dean judge who has acted on behalf of all the courts of the Court.

For his part, the president of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, Jesús María Barrientos, issued an agreement authorizing the suspension of the judicial proceedings scheduled by the courts of said autonomy because "the rate of contagion doubles every day, which who advises with greater intensity to take precautions in order to slow the progress of the infection's spread. " Likewise, the president of the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León, José Luis Concepción , provisionally approved the suspension of all trials, hearings and appearances that were scheduled to take place in the different judicial bodies of the Community until the 25th of March for "there being a risk to people's health or the spread of disease." The president of the Canary Islands High Court of Justice, Antonio Doreste, acted in the same way , and has agreed to stop judicial activity on the islands "with general character" and "immediate effects" except for urgent matters.

Lesmes, in the pillory

This decision of the Permanent Commission was preceded by a deep malaise generated within the Judicial and Fiscal Career as well as in the advocacy for the first measures adopted by the General Council of the Judiciary that Carlos Lesmes presides over to face the pandemic.

In a joint statement, the Professional Association of the Magistracy, Judges and Judges for Democracy, the Francisco de Vitoria Association and the Independent Judicial Forum, the Association of Prosecutors and the Independent Association of Prosecutors called for Lesmes's resignation this morning. "The General Council of the Judiciary has shirked its responsibility, has given a late, unsatisfactory, confusing and obstructionist response to the problem, discharging the responsibility of stopping the spread of the disease in each individual judge and has contributed to maintaining a situation of risk of contagion in the judicial venues, both of individuals and legal operators, "they stressed.

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