• Direct. Last minute about the coronavirus
  • Map.Evolution of the coronavirus in Spain
  • Pandemic. The president of the TSJ of Castilla y León: "The Government uses the paralysis of the country for purposes other than saving the coronavirus"
  • Opinion: truth and justice

Fracture within the Judiciary by the statements of the President of the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León , José Luis Concepción. The president of the Supreme Court and of the General Council of the Judiciary, Carlos Lesmes, yesterday sent a letter to the magistrate asking him for "moderation, prudence and restraint", as well as "institutional responsibility" given his status as the highest representative of the Judiciary in an autonomous community .

Concepción said Thursday in an interview on Onda Cero that "the Government is using the paralysis of the country for different purposes to save the population from the coronavirus." He also stressed that citizens have the right to know "the truth" about the death toll of the pandemic after the data collected by the civil registries of Castilla y León reflected more than double the number of deaths than the official figures provided by the Government. The president of the Burgos- based TSJ stressed that his statements were merely a "legal" reflection, making use of his freedom of expression throughout the radio interview. It was useless.

In the letter sent by Lesmes, the Permanent Commission , with the vote against two conservative members, transmitted to the Castilian-Leonese president that "from the most absolute respect for the right to freedom of expression, we consider it necessary to also remember that, in the case of members of the Judicial Power, it is subject to specific and stricter limits, derived from the nature of the jurisdictional function they perform. In this sense, the Organic Law of the Judicial Power imposes on judges and magistrates the prohibition of directing the powers, authorities and public officials congratulations or censures for their acts, having established the doctrine of the Supreme Court that the freedom of expression of the members of the Judicial Career must be exercised with prudence and moderation that allows preserving their impartiality and authority as judges. "

Two votes against

The members Juan Manuel Fernández and Juan Martínez Moya were opposed to sending the letter to José Luis Concepción at the meeting that was urgently convened yesterday by the Permanent Commission -with that point exclusively on the agenda- by maintaining that it must prevail in In this case, freedom of expression.

Sources of the governing body of the judges consulted by EL MUNDO explain that Fernández and Martínez Moya considered it inappropriate for the Council "ex officio" to send the letter to Concepción to "publicly censor him" when in his position as president of the TSJ he can also act as spokesman of the Judiciary in that territory and most of the interview was focused on analyzing the data that had been collected by civil registries for the deaths by Covid-19 . In addition, both councilors stressed that the togado made "a legal reflection on the limits of the state of alarm", this being a "debate of great significance at present" in the world of law.

In contrast, the members of the so-called progressive group, Álvaro Cuesta, Pilar Sepúlveda and Rafa Mozo, proposed that an investigation be opened - the opening of some informative proceedings - by the Council itself to the magistrate, considering that he had exceeded his statements . Finally, it was President Lesmes who proposed in the heated debate the idea of ​​sending a letter to José Luis Concepción urging him to maintain "prudence" and "restraint" in these moments of national emergency.

Lesmes proposed sending the letter

Likewise, another of the controversial moments of the Permanent meeting occurred when there were members who compared the protests of José Luis Concepción with those of the Vice President of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, charging against the judges of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid who sentenced Podemos spokeswoman, Isa Serra, for the crime of attacking law enforcement officers.

In fact, the Lesmes missive also emphasizes that, throughout the current mandate of the current governing body of the judges, the Permanent Commission has spoken on several occasions before the statements of members of the Executive Power regarding actions of the courts, having always demanded "moderation, prudence and restraint and institutional responsibility to avoid the political use of Justice or the questioning of the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the judges who make up the Judiciary." On this point, the dissenting members argued that it was not a similar situation because here "the Judiciary has not been attacked" at the same time that they recalled that judges have individual rights such as freedom of expression.

Finally, President Carlos Lesmes and members José Antonio Ballestero, Pilar Sepúlveda, Álvaro Cuesta and Rafa Mozo voted in favor of reprimanding the protests by the President of the TSJ of Castilla y León through the controversial letter. Juan Manuel Fernández and Juan Martínez Moya announced a particular vote. For their part, Sepúlveda, Cuesta and Mozo will make a concurring vote.

Different measuring sticks

After the attention given to José Luis Concepción, CGPJ sources consulted by this newspaper consider that the same yardstick is not used with many other judges who daily go to television gatherings to give "clearly political opinions and in that case nobody He sends them no letter so that they do not damage the impartiality of the Judicial Career or contribute to its politicization. " They also remember when the judge of the National Court José Ricardo de Prada publicly maintained that in Spain "torture has occurred clearly" and added: "I have had many cases of strong suspicion." In that case, the CGPJ did not act ex officio and filed the complaint from the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), maintaining that the judges and magistrates "are holders of the right to freedom of expression and opinion."

It is the second time that the CGPJ Permanent Commission has fractured in recent hours. Last Thursday it did so on the occasion of the resumption of discretionary appointments - including three presidents of the Supreme Court Chamber - in the midst of a pandemic. In that case, the members, Martínez Moya and Fernández, also announced a particular vote, as they did not consider that, with the procedural deadlines suspended and judicial activity paralyzed throughout the country, it would be more convenient for the judges' governing body to retake the appointments of the most sensitive charges.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • General Council of the Judiciary
  • Castilla y León
  • Supreme court
  • National audience
  • Spain
  • Isabel Serra Sánchez
  • Pablo Iglesias
  • Covid 19
  • Coronavirus
  • State of alarm

Justice The CGPJ recommends "limiting as much as possible" the trials in the month of August

SpainThe Prosecutor's Office opens 38 proceedings to investigate the death of elderly people in residences through criminal proceedings

CoronavirusSanidad tells the Supreme Court that the collection of material began 12 days before the state of alarm