The Public Prosecutor's Office endorses that the National Court investigate the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta

MadridThe Public Prosecutor's Office is in favor of the National Court formally opening a criminal case regarding the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta at the end of July. This is stated in the report submitted by prosecutor Jesús Alonso, who concludes that the judge is competent to investigate the facts. After having received the pronouncement from the public ministry and the reports from the Spanish police and the Civil Guard, the magistrate María Tardón must now make a decision. The Prosecutor's Office argues that the “main result” of the migrants' entry affected Ceuta and justifies that the law of the judiciary allows Spanish jurisdiction to scrutinize “conduct developed outside the national territory” when there are “sufficient connecting elements” and when the “legally relevant effects” are projected onto interests protected by the Spanish legal system.

The prosecutor argues that the first indications of the investigation point to a “substantial part” of the “planning, mobilization, logistical coordination, digital dissemination and eventual strategic direction” of the massive entry “having been developed in Moroccan territory,” while “the material execution of the action, the pursued result and the most relevant effects” were in Spanish territory. In addition, he asks the judge to decree a partial secret of the proceedings given the “exceptional reasons” of the case.

At this time, the Prosecutor's Office considers that the investigated facts could constitute the crimes of criminal organization or group and facilitating illegal immigration, aggravated by having endangered the life or physical integrity of people and in concurrence with crimes of homicide and injuries due to gross negligence. Later on, the investigation will have to determine if the facts could have involved crimes that affected public order or legal assets of a collective nature such as the peace or independence of the State.

The Civil Guard maintains that the prior warnings did not foresee the massive entry

Just this morning, the Civil Guard Information Service Directorate delivered to María Tardón the report thatthe judge requested a month ago: it points out that the prior warnings did not foresee the massive entry of people that ultimately occurred. As Europa Press explains, the document mentions the information shared through the usual cooperation channels regarding the concentration of people on the Moroccan side of the border, but stresses that the collapse situation that ended up occurring was not foreseen.

This document arrives two days after the report from the National Center for Immigration and Borders (Cenif) became known which concludes that the migrants had the complicity of the Moroccan security forces, who “favored” the entry with an “active guidance of the mass towards crossing points” and showed “total permissiveness” towards the people crossing the border, without making “any serious attempt” to try to “disperse or drive them away”.

The judicial fronts of the Ceuta crisis

The National Court case arose following a complaint filed by the ultra entity Iustitia Europa for an “instrumentalization of migratory flows that compromises territorial integrity and public security”. Subsequently, Vox and Hazte Oír also brought the crisis to the National Court and the judge decided to group everything under the same umbrella. The PP and the Ceuta government have announced that they will appear as a popular prosecutor. In the last few hours, the Liberum association – another regular in the causes that implicate the PSOE – has filed a new complaint.

In parallel, Manos Limpias filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against Pedro Sánchez and the Ministers of the Interior and Defense, Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Margarita Robles. For the moment, the high court has not yet made a move. Where there have been developments is in the Ceuta courts, which have initiated preliminary proceedings for a complaint by the ultra pseudo-union against the Spanish government delegate in the autonomous city, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, for the crimes of omission of the duty to prosecute crimes and prevarication by omission. Vox and Hazte Oír have also promoted actions against him.