The name of Manuel García Castellón does not go unnoticed. The judge who decided to investigate former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for terrorism in the minute of stoppage time during the negotiation with Junts for the amnesty law has made big headlines since he returned to the National Court in 2017.
His great case in these last six years has undoubtedly been that of José Manuel Villarejo. He has kept the former police commissioner imprisoned for more than three years and has placed him in the dock for which he has been sentenced to 19 years in prison. He currently has fifty pieces open for Operation Tandem and is going to put former Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz on the bench for Kitchen, for using reserved funds and police resources to steal information from former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas.
Their decisions have generated philias and phobias. When he uncovered the Kitchen, he was applauded for unmasking the sewers of the State and then calling into question his actions, by refusing to go against the former general secretary of the PP, María Dolores de Cospedal, as Anti-Corruption requested.
Bringing to light Villarejo's outrages, which he had done and undone for years, involved many hours of work and pressure; However, he went from hero to villain when he tried to indict the vice president of the government and founder of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, for allegedly destroying the memory card of the phone of one of his advisors, Dina Bousselham.
In 2020 he went to the General Council of the Judiciary to inform that “in 42 years of professional practice, I have never been subjected to a defamation campaign of this dimension and this level.”
Among other things, he has always been remembered for being a conservative court judge after having been part of the majority Professional Association of the Magistracy (APM). In the case of Iglesias, the Supreme Court stopped him and the Prosecutor's Office opposed his criteria. He then delved into possible irregular financing of Podemos in its origins, in a case that has not had the support of the Prosecutor's Office either.
After 16 years as a liaison judge, García Castellón returned to the central investigative court number 6 of the National Court, where he had left after imprisoning the president of Banesto Mario Conde. He did not intend to ascend or reach the Supreme Court. He wanted to return to teaching and that would be the end of his retirement.
“Manolo” as his loved ones call him, has spent this time with the help of two supporting judges, Joaquín Gadea and Daniel González Uriel. Magistrate Alejando Abascal was also there for a while, who is in another position within the hearing.
His decisions taken with the CDR and Tsunami Democràtic have also been controversial. With the support of the National Court Prosecutor's Office and the Civil Guard, he imprisoned 13 members of the CDR for creating a terrorist group to achieve the independence of Catalonia. Within the independence movement he was harshly criticized and even ridiculed. In fact, from sources in the amnesty negotiations it is suggested that these two issues, despite what the judge described, are not really terrorism, and therefore should be included in the list of those eligible for amnesty.
The speed of including Puigdemont and Marta Rovira in the Tsunami investigation before the presentation of the law has once again put their name in the spotlight. For some he is part of "lawfare", for others he is "a patriot" and for a third sector, "a judge in defense of judicial independence."
