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 mass 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. Now María Tardón will have to make a decision. The public ministry argues that the “main result” of the entry of migrants affected Ceuta and justifies that the Law on the Judiciary allows the Spanish jurisdiction to scrutinize “conduct carried out 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 initial indications of the investigation point to a “substantial part” of the “planning, mobilization, logistical coordination, digital dissemination and eventual strategic direction” of the mass 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. 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 constitute the crimes of organization or criminal group and aiding illegal 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 if the facts could have involved crimes that affect public order or legal assets of a collective nature such as the peace or independence of the State.

The Prosecutor's Office 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, which “favored” the entry with an “active guidance of the crowd toward passage points” and showed “total permissiveness” toward the people crossing the border, without making “any serious attempt” to try to “disperse or drive them away”.