• Justice The Association of Prosecutors calls for the resignation of the attorney general for his "crude maneuver" to appoint Dolores Delgado
  • Conflict of interest Delgado shares conferences with Garzón on issues he will control as prosecutor of Memoria Democrática
  • Editorial Prosecutors risk their dignity with the appointment of Delgado

It will be a tense Fiscal Council after the unprecedented situation created by the castillamiento of the Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, of not postponing or withdrawing from the agenda the appointment of the prosecutor of the Chamber of Democratic Memory and Human Rights. The prosecutorial career looks in unison to the decision adopted by the highest representative of the institution on the proposal to appoint the position to which his mentor and predecessor, former Justice Minister Dolores Delgado, aspires.

Before the celebration of this meeting, the vocal Salvador Viada, representative of the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF), asked García Ortiz to abstain from participating in this appointment and, in addition, to postpone the appointment in order to analyze the "conflict of interest" between Delgado and his sentimental partner, former judge Baltasar Garzón, owner of the office Ilocad, specialized in Human Rights. None of these petitions were resolved by the attorney general, who today will not be able to avoid pronouncing on them nor face face to face the deep indignation existing among the majority of the counselors.

Tax sources consulted by EL MUNDO report that both the members of the Association of Prosecutors (AF) and the representative of the APIF appreciate the conflict of interest of Delgado to perform this position for the millionaire business of his partner. Article 58.1 of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office states that prosecutors may not exercise their positions "in the Prosecutor's Offices that include within their territorial circumscription a population in which their spouse or person to whom they are linked in a stable way by a similar relationship of affectivity exercises an industrial or commercial activity that hinders the impartial performance of their function". Moreover, the final word in determining this "incompatibility" is the exclusive competence of the Fiscal Council.

Conflict of interest

However, García Ortiz can ignore its members and prevent the substance of this issue from being addressed although the majority sector of the Council plans to make it clear that Delgado faces a clear "conflict of interest" for the position that his predecessor intends to appoint.

In recent hours, discomfort over García Ortiz's performance has been increasing. The AF requested his resignation and stressed that "no attorney general had anticipated, with crude maneuver, a Fiscal Council already convened, just to make some appointments." The majority association considers that "the deterioration of the institutional image of the Public Prosecutor's Office has reached one of its highest limits" with the "dedazo" to Delgado. On the other hand, the APIF accused the "Attorney General's Office of trying to deceive citizens and prosecutors."

The controversy began a week and a half ago when García Ortiz convened a Fiscal Council in a surprise way, just two hours after the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez announced the advance of the general elections on 23-J. It did so, moreover, when another meeting of the body had already been scheduled for the 19th.

The majority of the Council understood that the attorney general indicated that meeting to accelerate the appointment of Delgado, to which he owes his promotion within the Prosecutorial Career (the former minister promoted him to prosecutor of Sala as head of his Technical Secretariat and García Ortiz returned the promotion 64 days after leaving as attorney general when he appointed her prosecutor of the Military Chamber).

Both the AF and the APIF conveyed to the attorney general that there were no urgent reasons to make such far-reaching appointments at the end of his term, but García Ortiz refused to postpone them and gave examples of different appointments made during the term of former attorneys general Consuelo Madrigal and María José Segarra . None of the cases brought to the coalition is similar to the appointment of two Chamber prosecutors in newly created positions. And neither of these two attorneys general dared to propose the appointment of prosecutors of the highest professional category against the majority criterion of the Fiscal Council.

It so happens that the position of prosecutor of the Democratic Memory Chamber is the destiny dreamed of by Delgado. Since becoming head of the Ministry of Justice, the prosecutor has been promoting the creation of this position in the shadows. He did so as a member of the Council of Ministers but also when he occupied the Attorney General's Office. Her haste to perform these functions was such that last January, when the Law of Democratic Memory had already been approved, but the effective creation of the position of prosecutor of Sala had not occurred, Álvaro García Ortiz issued a decree and appointed her prosecutor "delegated for the guarantee and defense of human rights". with functions similar to those attributed to the Prosecutor's Office of the Chamber to which he now aspires.

Along with the former minister, the prosecutor of the Court of Auditors, Carlos Castresana (prosecutor of the Pinochet case); Juan Calparsoro, prosecutor of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Guipúzcoa; and Luis Ibáñez, anti-drug prosecutor. The final word on the appointment rests with the Government. On the other hand, the foreseeable appointment of Dolores Delgado can be challenged before the Supreme Court.

  • Justice
  • Dolores Delgado
  • Baltasar Garzon

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