Marlaska says his team was unaware of the conviction of the dismissed national police officer in Lleida

BarcelonaA misstep by the Interior Ministry. The department, headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, will dismiss Commissioner Antonio José Royo Subías as head of the National Police in Lleida shortly after appointing him a week ago, on December 9, according to ministry sources. This high-ranking police official was convicted of sexual harassment two decades ago. The minister asserted on Tuesday that his department was unaware of the sexual harassment conviction because it was no longer on Royo Subías's record when he was appointed to the position, as the law requires such records to be expunged after a certain period. According to the minister's explanation in the Senate, in response to questions from ERC parliamentarian Sara Bailac, the person responsible for making these appointments (the Director General of the Police) was unaware of the conviction, but it came to light thanks to "third parties," allowing for the commissioner's immediate dismissal. After expressing the Interior Ministry's commitment "to the fight against all types of sexual assault," Marlaska acknowledged that the situation could cause "great harm" because it could affect the trust of victims of sexual or gender-based violence in policies on this matter. In fact, this is not the first time the Interior Ministry has dismissed this officer. In 2018, he was in charge of the Regional Judicial Police Brigade of Aragon, which oversaw the Family and Women's Unit. He was appointed by the previous Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, and his successor ended up dismissing him, a move that also generated controversy at the time, according to reports. Aragon Newspaper.

The sentence

The harassment occurred in the 1990s, when he was chief inspector of the Police Intervention Unit—the riot police—in San Sebastián, in the Basque Country. The Gipuzkoa Provincial Court found it proven that from the moment he joined the unit, he began to "demand" that the victim "have sexual relations with him." "If he complied with his demands," the ruling added, "he would ensure that he received" allowances, days off, leave, and promotions, but, "otherwise, he threatened to make him his enemy," which would relegate him to "worse assignments." The current commissioner stabbed the officer—who requested a transfer to Barcelona—during a lunch with other police officers in Pamplona. Although convicted, he was never disqualified from public office, according to sources at the Ministry of the Interior.