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 massive 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 that she is competent to analyze facts 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 that were 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 people not yet identified” and justifies that a “massive migratory flow” is “one of the characteristic methods” of hybrid warfare.

Tardón's 26-page court order also speaks about the great question that is still dragging on, 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 “confirmed and graphically contrasted” behavior of the Moroccan security forces. Adopting verbatim the arguments of the National Center for Immigration and Borders (Cenif) of the Spanish police, 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 that they carried out an “active guidance” giving “indications” to the migrants to help them “overcome the obstacles”. And she repeats another consideration of the public prosecutor's office: “The migratory purpose operates only as a formal cover that serves to encourage, 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 weak flotation devices, some little more than toys”, denounces the judge. They were elderly people or families with children –some parents with babies in their arms– who were carrying “precarious aid elements” and “inadequate” clothing that once wet could “seriously hinder” movements when swimming.

In fact, it is not the only case that could end up being opened. A contentious-administrative appeal by Zeolandia –an association that defends animals and the environment– against the General State Administration for deliberate omission of preventive security measures and for concealment of intelligence information has led the Supreme Court to demand information from the Spanish government about Pedro Sánchez's statements from Ceuta on July 31. In parallel, Vox has filed a complaint against Pedro Sánchez and Fernando Grande-Marlaska for crimes of collaboration with terrorism, homicide and injuries due to gross negligence, administrative misconduct, omission of the duty to prosecute crimes and concealment. It joins the one promoted by Manos Limpias a few days ago.

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 increased entries” in 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 beach zone and the free movement 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 integrity of the border and defending human life,” argued Pedro Sánchez last week.

After this gate was opened, entry was “more accessible” and messages went viral that the border had opened. The court order collects some of them: “Assault night, last one to leave turns off the lights” 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 also spread. “You must 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 underscores that the Spanish police detected that 91% of the mobile phones that acted as “dynamizers” 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, following the doubts cast by the Ministry of the Interior regarding the Cenif verdict, 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 emphasizes that the Cenif has a “special qualification” to analyze “any of the dynamics” related to migratory phenomena and flows.

Finally, she demands that the popular accusations that have appeared in the case pay a bail of 6,000 euros to be able 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 it for making a “mere political instrumentalization” of the exercise of criminal action.