The lawyer common presents his resignation after the Supreme Court’s conviction | Spain | EUROtoday

The State Attorney General offered his resignation to the Government this Monday. Álvaro García Ortiz has despatched a letter to the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, by which he requests his dismissal from the Council of Ministers. “It is an act due not only to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, but to all Spanish citizens,” states the letter, to which EL PAÍS has had entry. García Ortiz has taken this step after studying, final Thursday, of the ruling of the Supreme Court that sentences him to 2 years of disqualification from workplace for a criminal offense of unveiling secrets and techniques and imposes a advantageous of seven,200 euros and the cost of compensation of 10,000 euros to businessman Alberto González Amador, associate of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and prosecuted for fraud towards the Treasury.

In the letter despatched to Bolaños, García Ortiz explains that his resolution to deliver ahead his departure earlier than the Supreme Court executes the disqualification, and “without even waiting to know the motivation for the sentence”, is because of his “deep respect” for judicial resolutions and his will “always present, to protect the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office.” “Although my determination derives directly from the ruling that has been notified to me, to my credit I am convinced that I have faithfully served the institution to which I am honored to belong, with an unequivocal vocation for public service, a sense of duty and institutional loyalty.”

The dismissal won’t change into efficient till it’s accepted by the Council of Ministers, anticipated this Tuesday, and is revealed within the Official State Gazette (BOE). García Ortiz may have remained in workplace till the Supreme Court notifies the sentence with the arguments which have led it to sentence him (for now it has solely made the ruling public), since that will likely be when the sentence takes impact. But the lawyer common has chosen to anticipate his departure by making the most of article 31.1 a) of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (EOMF), which contemplates that the state lawyer common can resign “at his own request.”

García Ortiz thanks the Government for appointing him to the place in June 2022. “The trust placed then is the same that I now return when I understand that, once the ruling is known, it is time to abandon the performance of such a high responsibility,” says the top of the Public Ministry, who, all through all the judicial course of, has refused to resign, contemplating that remaining in workplace was “the least burdensome and most prudent for the institution in the medium and long term.”

Now will probably be the Government that has to nominate a brand new head of the Public Ministry, which would be the fourth, since Pedro Sánchez arrived at La Moncloa in June 2018. Before García Ortiz had been María José Segarra and Dolores Delgado, who additionally resigned, though in her case, as a consequence of well being issues.

The Supreme Court’s conviction solely disqualifies García Ortiz “for the position of State Attorney General”, so, after his resignation, he can request his re-entry into the prosecutor’s profession, from which he has been out whereas he has been head of the general public ministry. But different rules that govern the Prosecutor’s Office go away its future within the air and whether or not the ruling of the excessive court docket will suggest its expulsion from the race. Tax sources affirm that, to know the implications of the disqualification, we should wait to listen to the sentence.

What is foreseeable is {that a} file will likely be opened to find out how the conviction impacts García Ortiz’s standing as prosecutor. Article 32 d) of the rules of the Prosecutorial Career, of 2022, contains as one of many the explanation why a prosecutor loses this situation the truth that he’s sentenced with a penalty “of disqualification from public office.” The Inspection must interpret whether or not this clause is relevant on this case provided that he has been sentenced with particular disqualification for the place of lawyer common. In any case, this principle additionally establishes the expulsion from the profession when a “intentional crime” is dedicated towards a prosecutor, such because the one which the Supreme Court attributes to the top of the general public ministry.

However, this text of the regulation states that the State Attorney General (García Ortiz’s successor) might “replace the loss of prosecutor status with the sanction of suspension in cases in which the sentence is not greater than 6 months,” and refers, in flip, to article 44 of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (EOMF), which empowers the top of the general public ministry to vary the expulsion of a prosecutor for suspension “in a reasoned manner and taking into account the nature of the crime.” dedicated.” The subsequent head of the general public ministry must assess whether or not this assumption is relevant to García Ortiz and, even, if there’s any possibility for him to stay throughout the race, for the reason that disqualification of the Supreme Court is just for the place of lawyer common.

In his first public look after the Supreme Court’s conviction, this Sunday, the President of the Government assured that the method to alleviate García Ortiz is already underway and, though he didn’t give clear clues about names, sources from the Executive have indicated in current days that he will likely be clearly progressive and an individual with a powerful profile to face a really delicate scenario. “The government has always proposed people like García, with extensive experience, with important knowledge of the subject. We recognize the work that Álvaro García has done, it has been very positive,” stated Sánchez, who made clear his discomfort with the ruling and even trusted that “other instances”, in reference to the Constitutional Court or European justice, “can resolve aspects of this ruling that may be controversial.”

García Ortiz has maintained his innocence from the start and has denied having leaked the e-mail that was the main target of the investigation. At the trial, throughout his assertion as an investigator, the top of the general public ministry assured that neither he nor anybody round him had leaked the e-mail. “The truth is not leaked, the truth is defended,” he stated. The lawyer common has refused to resign all through all the course of, however the two-year disqualification sentence imposed by the Supreme Court forces him to depart workplace.

No atypical enchantment may be filed towards that ruling, solely an incident of annulment, a unprecedented process to say the annulment of a judicial decision as a consequence of violation of basic rights, however it will be the Supreme Court itself that must resolve it and the possibilities of it succeeding are very distant. Once the avenues within the excessive court docket have been exhausted, the one possibility that García Ortiz would have could be to current an enchantment for cover within the Constitutional Court if he considers constitutional rights violated.

The sentence imposed by the Supreme Court is decrease than that requested by the accusations, which demanded between 4 and 6 years in jail and as much as 12 years of disqualification. The crime for which García Ortiz has been convicted, 417.1 of the Penal Code, punishes the authority or public official “who reveals secrets or information of which he has knowledge due to his job or position and which should not be disclosed.” The penalty offered for this crime is a advantageous of twelve to eighteen months and particular disqualification for employment or public workplace for a interval of 1 to a few years, however in its aggravated kind it could contain a jail sentence of 1 to a few years and disqualification of three to 5 years. The court docket has chosen to remain in the midst of the vary of the essential charge for the sentence of disqualification, two years, and for the minimal sentence for the advantageous (12 months with a every day charge of 20 euros).