The National Court will investigate the entry of migrants into Ceuta as an attempt to attack the State

MadridThe National Court has decided to open a criminal case to investigate the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta at the end of July. After the endorsement of the Public Prosecutor's Office and receiving the reports it commissioned from the Spanish police and the Civil Guard, Judge María Tardón considers herself competent to analyze events that she believes could be framed within three crimes: one that compromises the peace or independence of the State, against the rights of foreign citizens – in connection with a crime of reckless homicide for the 83 bodies found in Spanish waters – and of criminal organization. “We are facing criminal conduct allegedly committed abroad that has seriously attacked the territorial integrity of Spain,” she maintains. “It is deduced that the crime has an intentionality to attack the State,” adds the judge, who recalls that Pedro Sánchez presented the events as a “violation of the territorial integrity of Spain.” Furthermore, she points out that the events were promoted by a “plurality of persons not yet identified” and justifies that a “mass migratory flow” is “one of the characteristic methods” of hybrid warfare.

The indictment, of 26 pages, also speaks about the great question that still lingers, which has become the epicenter of the political squabble and which has left the PSOE isolated from its partners: the role of Morocco. For the judge, “a clear and undoubted management favoring the process” from the territory of the Alawite country has been “evidenced” thanks to the “verified and graphically contrasted” behavior of the Moroccan security forces. Adopting the arguments of the National Center for Immigration and Borders (Cenif) of the Spanish police textually as her own, she alleges that not only was there “passivity” on the part of the agents, who made “no serious attempt to try to reduce, disperse or move the mass of people away” from the border, but they carried out “active guidance” by giving “indications” to the migrants to help them “overcome the obstacles.” And she repeats another consideration of the public ministry: “The migratory purpose operates only as a formal cover that serves to foster, promote and direct a massive flow of people to the border.”

“From the absolute contempt for the life and physical integrity of some of the most vulnerable people, they were led to throw themselves into the sea, without preparation and [...] providing them with flimsy buoyancy aids, some little more than toys”, the judge denounces. They were elderly people or families with children –some parents with babies in their arms– who were carrying “precarious auxiliary elements” and “inadequate” clothing that, once wet, could “seriously hinder” their movements when swimming.

The importance of mobile phones

The judge dedicates four and a half pages to creating a chronology of the events. She explains that it all began with a “sustained and growing situation of an increase in entries” into Ceuta in the days prior. Until the crisis erupted on July 30th. There were “waves of different intensity and profile” that caused a “collapse of the response capabilities” of the Spanish border control system and a “massive violation of the territorial sovereignty” of Spain. The arrival of so many people meant that the courtyard between the restricted area of the beach and the free circulation zone, where migrants were initially held, reached a situation of “saturation” that made it necessary to open it. “The agents had to choose between momentarily guaranteeing the airtightness of the border or defending human life,” argued Pedro Sánchez last week.

After this door was opened, entry was “more accessible” and messages went viral that the border had been opened. The court order collects some of them: “Night of assault, the last one to leave turn off the light” or “Brothers, come down, the customs has opened”. “The police are wearing their normal clothes, all the cities of Morocco are here”, said another. Subsequently, advice to avoid expulsion was also spread. “You have to enter Ceuta and hide until the Spaniards calm down”, for example. Or “when you step on Ceuta, say that you cannot return to Morocco due to political problems”.

The judge emphasizes that the Spanish police detected that 91% of the mobile phones that acted as “boosters” and “loudspeakers” had a Moroccan prefix. And she highlights that, among other things, the messages “distorted” the Supreme Court ruling regarding the hot returns of migrants arriving by sea and the regularization process that the Spanish government promoted at the beginning of the year.

A “thorough analysis” by the Spanish police

Likewise, after the doubts raised by the Ministry of the Interior regarding the verdict of Cenif, María Tardón also takes the opportunity to defend the work of the investigators: “A meticulous, precise and detailed analysis of the abundant material”. And she stresses that Cenif has a “special qualification” to analyze “any of the dynamics” related to migration phenomena and flows.

Finally, she demands that the popular accusations that have appeared in the case pay a bail of 6,000 euros in order to formalize it. They are Iustitia Europa, the extra-parliamentary party that filed the initial complaint, the PP, Vox, Hazte Oír, Libertad y Justicia, Zeolandia and Ahora España. On the other hand, the judge has rejected the complaint filed by S'ha Acabat la Festa –Alvise Pérez's party– against the King of Morocco and the Moroccan Minister of the Interior for crimes against humanity: she reproaches them for making a “mere political instrumentalization” of the exercise of criminal action.