The Madrid Court requests the reopening of the case concerning the leak of ID photos of 33 pro-independence judges in 'La Razón'

BarcelonaThe Madrid Provincial Court has requested the reopening of the case concerning the leak of photos of the ID cards of 33 pro-independence Catalan judges, which were published in the newspaper The reason In March 2014, after the judges signed a manifesto in favor of the right to self-determination. Specifically, the court has ordered the reopening of the case in the 15th Investigating Section of the Madrid Court of First Instance, as has been reported. The World and has been confirmed by ACN. The complaint filed by the judges was dismissed in 2015, but following the publication of some audio recordings in The World In which they pointed to the patriotic police as being aware of the leak, the judges requested that the case be reopened, and now the Madrid Provincial Court has ruled in their favor.

What exactly was the content of the audio recordings? It was a recording from March 4, 2014, in which Eugenio Pino, then Deputy Director of Operations (DAO) of the National Police, spoke with Commissioner Marcelino Martín Blas, then head of the Internal Affairs Unit; with the head of the Police Information Brigade in Catalonia, Pedro Esteban; and with retired Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo. In the meeting, in addition to defending the judges' investigation, they explained that the records of the database queries were deleted to avoid leaving a trace. They also discussed how the investigation should be explained.

Access to the DNI database occurred on February 13 and 14, 2014, by three identified police officers, who extracted the photos, provided them to a superior, and included them in an internal memo on February 18. On March 3, the photos were published in The reason And the following day, a meeting of police chiefs was allegedly held to discuss the matter. When the data was published, proceedings had already been initiated, but they were subsequently shelved.

When the recordings were made public, the judges' lawyers submitted them to the Madrid court that had dismissed the case, which rejected its reopening last November. Several judges appealed this decision, and now the Madrid Provincial Court, against the opinion of the Public Prosecutor's Office, has ruled in their favor. The judges consider that the crime has not expired under any circumstances and that, in light of the audio recordings, proceedings must be carried out to determine the responsibilities of the public officials responsible for the disclosure of secrets.