The Supreme Court once again finds Civil Guard Colonel Diego Pérez de los Cobos right against the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. After a confrontation due to a judicial investigation that affected a Government position, the head of the Interior dismissed him from his position and rejected his promotion to general. The Supreme Court has just agreed with the command of the armed institute regarding his position, months after it was recognized that his dismissal as head of the Madrid Command was irregular.
The Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court has upheld the appeals filed by the colonel against three royal decrees appointing generals of said body, dated October 2021, as he considered himself relegated in promotions to which he claimed to be entitled. .
The court, in the terms requested in the lawsuits, agrees to the annulment of the appointments and orders the retroaction of the procedures so that the report of the general director of the Civil Guard provided for in article 67.2 of the Personnel Regime Law is issued. the Civil Guard, which regulates the evaluations for promotion by election to the positions of Brigadier General and Colonel.
Recently, the Interior has had to reinstate Pérez de los Cobos as head of the Civil Guard in Madrid after the colonel's first legal victory against Grande-Marlaska.
The name of Pérez de los Cobos initially came to the fore because he was one of the commanders who coordinated the police operation during the referendum on October 1, 2017 and one of the main witnesses during the procés trial.
He was later appointed head of the Madrid Command and it was during that period when he clashed with Grande-Marlaska as a result of an investigation of the then Government delegate in Madrid José Manuel Franco for allowing the 8-M demonstration for Women's Day in 2020 in full progress of Covid.
Following a report provided by the judicial police to the judge investigating it, the general director of the Civil Guard at the time, María Gámez, asked Pérez de los Cobos for explanations.
The investigators, led by Pérez de los Cobos, issued a harsh report against the Government of Pedro Sánchez, holding it responsible for not prohibiting the demonstration on March 8 when the infections were already uncontrolled.
The report was delivered to the instructor without informing the then general director of the Civil Guard María Gámez and therefore the Minister of the Interior, which led to her sudden dismissal.
After his relief, it was announced that Gámez recorded in writing that the command was relieved for "not reporting the development of investigations and actions of the Civil Guard (...) for knowledge purposes." Gámez requested information from the colonel on several occasions about the judicial investigations, despite the fact that, being a judicial police officer, he imposed a duty of reserve and caution on the agents.
Pérez de los Cobos appealed to a Contentious Court of the National Court, which agreed with him. However, the Chamber reviewed the appeal by the State Attorney's Office and agreed with the latter, alleging that as a discretionary position there was no irregularity in the dismissal.
The high command, who had asked to return to his position in the Madrid Command, did not give up and went to the Supreme Court, which ended up upholding his appeal.
