These will be the judges who will decide whether to indict Carlos Mazón.

Two of them are members of the conservative wing of the judiciary; one of them dismissed a case against Camps.

Carlos Mazón arriving at Les Corts
2 min

ValenciaThe three judges of the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Justice (TSJ) of the Valencian Community who will decide whether to investigate former regional president Carlos Mazón—who retains parliamentary immunity as a member of the Valencian Parliament—have been identified. They are Manuel Baeza, president of the chamber and of the Valencian TSJ; Judge María Pía Calderón, who will be the rapporteur; and Judge José Francisco Ceres. On the table is the request from Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra of Catarroja, who argues that the politician from Alicante should be charged with manslaughter, negligent injury, and failure to render aid. Before deliberating, however, they must receive the arguments from the Public Prosecutor's Office, the defense, and the plaintiffs, who have until Monday to submit their submissions. Sources close to the case have told El Ara that the three judges are "very conservative" and have emphasized that Baeza and Ceres belong to the right-wing Professional Association of Magistrates. Others, on the contrary, have pointed out that, beyond their ideology, they are "very technically prepared" judges to assume such a crucial role. We now take a brief look at their careers. The most senior is Manuel Baeza, who assumed the position of president of the Valencian High Court in 2025. However, he had already been serving as interim president for some time following the retirement of his predecessor, Pilar de la Oliva. Beside him is José Francisco Ceres Montes, best known for leading a significant portion of the investigation into the Valencian branch of the Gürtel corruption case and, in 2009, for his controversial decision to dismiss the case against Francisco Camps for bribery in the well-known "suits case." This decision was overturned by the Supreme Court, which issued a strong rebuke to Ceres's actions. Conversely, two years later, he reopened the investigation and brought dozens of former Valencian PP officials implicated in the corruption scheme to trial. Ceres and Calderón also served as rapporteurs for several dismissals of complaints against former Socialist president Ximo Puig and Health Minister Ana Barceló regarding the measures adopted during the coronavirus pandemic.

With a less public profile is María Pía Cristina Calderón Cuadrado, a professor of procedural law at the University of Valencia. She was appointed magistrate of the High Court of Justice of Valencia (TSJ) in 2011 through the quota for jurists of recognized prestige and was part of the panel that accepted the reasoned statement to investigate the former Valencian vice-president and former leader of Compromís, Mónica Oltra. Furthermore, Calderón was the investigating judge in the Blasco case, when the 21st Investigating Court, after investigating the scheme created in the Ministry of Cooperation, presented the reasoned statement against Rafael Blasco, who had served as a PP minister in seven administrations, ultimately resulting in his eight-year prison sentence. The magistrate was also the rapporteur for the admission of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's complaint regarding the holding of the Formula 1 race in Valencia against former president Francisco Camps, who still held parliamentary immunity at the time, but the case was eventually dismissed by the 2nd Investigating Court of Valencia.

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