The General Council of the Judiciary has agreed today by majority to admit to processing the request for protection made by the judge of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón, in relation to the statements made by several political leaders following his decision to initiate an investigation to the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont in the cause of Democratic Tsunami.
In a document recorded last Monday, the magistrate referred specifically to some statements by the Secretary of State for Justice, Tontxu Rodríguez, on a radio station; and others from the spokesperson for the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Patricia Plaja, in a press conference. Among other things, Minister Pilar Llop's number two referred to the judge as someone sent abroad by former president José María Aznar to earn "some money."
According to García-Castellón, from the statements of both it is possible to infer the intention to influence the judicial procedure, as well as to worry or disturb him in the exercise of his jurisdictional functions.
The agreement of the Permanent Commission indicates that on repeated occasions the CGPJ has affirmed that the granting of the protection provided for in article 14 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary is based on the concurrence of circumstances and budgets that, analyzed from a point of view objective, reach sufficient virtuality to achieve the disturbance of judicial independence.
In the present case, the Permanente adds, it understands that a priori there may be a "sufficient basis to admit the request for processing", so it agrees to admit it and gives a period of ten days to the Secretary of State for Justice and the spokesperson of the Generalitat. so that they can make the allegations they deem pertinent.
The matter will then be submitted again to the Permanent Commission for the adoption of a final resolution.
The progressive member Mar Cabrejas has justified her vote against in a writing in which she explains that in her opinion, in the present case, the requirements for the admission of the amparo petition to processing are not met: that the actions of third parties referred to by the magistrate Not only do they harm the value of judicial independence, but they also influence the judicial decision-making process.
However, he has proposed that the Permanent Commission adopt a declaration in which it would be made clear that the statements brought to the attention of the CGPJ by García-Castellón “are inadmissible and must be classified in the fair terms they deserve: an unjustified excess of criticism of judicial decisions that when they come from public and political officials take on especially serious profiles.”
