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 expressed in the report submitted by prosecutor Jesús Alonso, who concludes that the judge is competent to investigate the events. Now María Tardón will have to make a decision after having received the statement from the public prosecutor's office and the reports from the Spanish police and the Civil Guard that requested at the beginning of August. The Public Prosecutor's Office argues that the “main result” of the migrant entry affected Ceuta and justifies that the Judiciary Act allows the 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 the fact that a “substantial part” of the “planning, mobilization, logistical coordination, digital dissemination, and eventual strategic direction” of the massive entry “would have been developed in Moroccan territory,” while “the material execution of the action, the pursued result, and the most relevant effects” were in Spanish territory. Furthermore, he asks the judge to decree the partial secrecy of the proceedings given the “exceptional reasons” of the case.
At this moment, the Public Prosecutor's Office considers that the investigated facts would be constitutive of the crimes of organization or criminal group and facilitation of irregular immigration, aggravated by endangering 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 whether the facts could have involved crimes affecting public order or legal assets of a collective nature such as the peace or independence of the State.
The Prosecutor's Office's statement comes two days after the report from the National Center for Immigration and Borders (Cenif) emerged 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” with 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 case arose from a complaint filed by Iustitia Europa. It maintained that the “concentration of thousands of individuals jumping simultaneously” into the sea demonstrated “logistical planning” and spoke of an “instrumentalization of migratory flows that compromises territorial integrity and public safety.” 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 government of Ceuta have announced that they will appear as popular prosecutors. Finally, the association Liberum –another regular in cases involving 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 taken any action. Where there have been developments is in the courts of Ceuta, which have initiated preliminary proceedings due to a complaint by the ultra-right pseudosyndicate against the delegate of the Spanish government in the autonomous city, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, for the crimes of omission of the duty to prosecute crimes and malfeasance by omission. Vox and Hazte Oír have also pushed for actions.
“Absolute support” for the judge in the face of Marlaska's criticism
The National Court has expressed its “absolute support” for the actions of judge María Tardón following the criticism from Minister Marlaska, who expressed his “concern” to the president of the Judiciary regarding the judge's decision to prohibit investigators from providing information to their superiors.
Now the government chamber of the National Court is closing ranks with the judge: “Not only has she not interfered with national security with her actions, but, on the contrary, she is acting for the preservation and defense of the general interest of Spain within the framework of scrupulous respect for her jurisdictional functions”.