Five hours after the session of the trial against José Luis Ábalos, seated among the members of the court, ended, Manuel Marchena solemnly entered the noble hall of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain to be admitted as a member. A protocolary act in which, surrounded by the most prominent names in Spanish justice, he delivered a 45-minute speech on the incorporation of electronic data into criminal proceedings. Listening to him – and taking some photos with their mobile phones – was the spokesperson for Justice of the PP, María Jesús Moro. She arrived alone with ten minutes to spare before the event began and, while looking for her seat, received a particular welcome. Julián Sánchez Melgar – who is also judging José Luis Ábalos and who was State Attorney General under Mariano Rajoy after the death of José Manuel Maza – touched her shoulder to greet her. After a brief conversation, she went to sit down. And – like the entire room – she applauded Manuel Marchena when he finished his speech and when he received the insignia that accredits him as a member.

Two-year disqualification, fine, and compensation for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's partner. condemnation of the Attorney General of the StateÁlvaro García Ortiz arrived at the Supreme Court this Thursday, the 50th anniversary of Franco's death, unexpectedly. He arrived even earlier than anticipated, and in fact, the sentence had not yet been drafted. Who are the five judges of the criminal division who made this decision? And who are the two dissenting judges? We examine the profiles of a court with a conservative majority, and the names associated with the judicialization of the Process of National Reorganization abound.

This Friday marked one year since the approval of the amnesty law in the Congress of Deputies, a bittersweet anniversary because while many people have already benefited from it—45% of those who have requested it, according to Òmnium data—there are also many requests that have not been granted. Among them are the police officers accused of bodily harm in connection with the 1-O referendum, and among the latter are the main political leaders of the process. The law is being debated in the Constitutional Court. Be that as it may, the law is making progress, but it is true that from a political standpoint, it will not have achieved its objective until former president Carles Puigdemont can freely return to Catalonia. A progressive majority should have this endorsement, but this will not mean its immediate application, since the Supreme Court considers that the law is not applicable to cases of embezzlement. A second legal battle will then open, which could also have a European scope if the Supreme Court submits a preliminary ruling to the CJEU. The amnesty, which is currently being implemented by its pro-independence partners, is now bogged down and without a clear timeline. It's possible that the amnesty won't be implemented until the end of the mandate, with the real danger that the legislature will end early and the new right-wing government will seek a way to torpedo it.

No one who attended the presentation of Manuel Marchena's book this Monday will have found an innovative legal or political disquisition compared to what they will find in Justice THREATENED (Espasa), a "considered, prudent, and non-dogmatic" view, according to writer Lorenzo Silva, on issues of current legal-political debate. The Supreme Court judge believes that political parties should be prohibited from exercising public prosecution and that only deputies, senators, members of the Spanish government, and the emeritus king—the current king is inviolable—should be granted immunity. He also believes that the current climate is not ripe for a profound reform that would lead the Prosecutor's Office to conduct criminal proceedings. All of this, which he explains at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, is already included in the book.

Manuel Marchena (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1959) made a decision that would remain with him throughout his professional career. He resigned in 2018 from his positions as president of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Supreme Court when it was published that former PP spokesperson in the Senate, Ignacio Cosidó, had praised himself in a message. that his party would control the second chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court "through the back door." Therefore, when Pedro Sánchez subsequently summoned him to Moncloa to once again propose that he preside over the governing body of the judges, he always rejected the offer. Marchena, a career prosecutor and now one of the most prestigious magistrates in the country, is working hard to rid himself of a stain that questions the independence he claimed in his resignation letter.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the €720 fine for minor insults to the crown imposed by the National Court in 2022 on Albert Baiges (Montbrió del Camp, 1984) for insulting Felipe VI on social media and urging him to "cut his throat." Manuel Marchena was the author of a ruling that rejects the defendant's right to freedom of expression. The judge who sentenced the leaders of the 1-O movement and the other magistrates consider the insults not protected by the doctrine of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and that they contribute nothing to the "political debate on the monarchy as a form of state."

From the beginning it was seen that the Supreme Court would place all possible obstacles to the application of the amnesty law to Carles Puigdemont and the rest of the main pro-independence leaders during 1-O, but especially to the former president. Això has contributed to a long and cumbersome judicial battle that this year, the prosecutors have visited a new capitol in the Supreme Court of Appeal, with both the Prosecutor's Office and the State Advocacy, together with Puigdemont's Advocate, Gonzalo Boye, defending that the amnesty was applied without delays when considering that it was not hi ha, such as defense judge Pablo Llarena, crime of embezzlement for mig. Boye has also defended that the case take place in the TSJC and that the Catalan judges be the ones to decide.

Two loud protests greeted the conference given yesterday afternoon by Supreme Court judge Manuel Marchena at the Bar Association of Barcelona (ICAB). Hundreds of people – 400 according to the police – gathered outside the building to protest against the presence of the president of the court that tried and sentenced the leaders of the Independence bid. In addition twenty lawyers present at the event, which dealt with artificial intelligence and criminal proceedings and to which journalists were denied access, stood up and left the conference in protest.

"It includes statements that are loaded with assessments and opinions [...] which, as is already known, cannot function as an empirical element of judgement, because they lack value and truth and cannot be subject to verification." This is one of the attacks that Constitutional Court magistrate Juan Ramón Sáez sent Supreme Court president Manuel Marchena and the court that convicted nine pro-independence leaders of sedition. In his dissenting vote on the ruling against Oriol Junqueras's and Raül Romeva's appeals, which he also applies to Joaquim Forn and Dolors Bassa, the judge who acquitted Catalan police major Josep Lluís Trapero in Spain's National Court accuses the Supreme Court of not having correctly proven that in 2017 sedition occurred on September 20 and October 1 nor that those involved participated in it. Sáez believes that the conviction violated the right to the presumption of innocence and the right to criminal legality, among others.

As expected, the Supreme Court has issued a report against the granting of pardons to the prisoners of the Catalan independence bid. But the arguments used by the second chamber in a document that breathes spirit of revenge and that is clearly aligned with the thesis against the government of Pedro Sánchez are no less disturbing. The Supreme insists throughout the report on the lack of repentance of those convicted and their risk of recidivism, that is, they intend the humiliation of people who were sentenced to long prison sentences for a crime, that of sedition, which is anachronistic and does not conform to the reality of the events that took place in October 2017. They intend to annihilate dissent.

Pedro Sánchez's time for pardons has come. More than two and a half years after the sentence, he will have to get off the fence if he wants to make a gesture towards political prisoners, after the Supreme Court settled the process and transferred the final decision to the cabinet. As expected, the court presided over by Manuel Marchena is opposed to granting the measure of grace for all those convicted, a fact that already conditions the Spanish government because it will not be able to grant a full pardon. This decision comes in the middle of political debate on the measure of grace because the head of the executive has already hinted that it will grant them. "The Constitution includes a time for punishment and a time for concord. The government will make the decision for the benefit of harmony and coexistence," he said on Wednesday during the control session in Congress.

Meritxell Serret, Catalan Minister of Agriculture at the time of the 2017 Independence Referendum, was charged on March 21, 2018 for alleged disobedience and embezzlement of public funds. And it is precisely for these two crimes for which she could now be judged after the investigating judge, Pablo Llarena, communicated this Thursday that he had completed the indictment and sent the case on to the second chamber of the Supreme Court, presided over by Manuel Marchena. "After completing the proceedings been deemed necessary for the verification of the crime, as well as to determine the defendant's participation in the events and the concurrent circumstances in its commission and considering any other inquiry unnecessary, it is appropriate to conclude the present indictment," the four-page order reads.