The attorney general gives Delgado the Democratic Memory square in the face of the rejection of the majority of prosecutors, who refuse to vote
The State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, has proposed this Thursday to his predecessor in office, the former Minister of Justice Dolores Delgado, for the position of prosecutor of the Chamber of Democratic Memory and Human Rights, according to prosecutors sources advance to EL MUNDO .
García Ortiz adopts this decision with the majority of the Fiscal Council against. The six members of the majority Association of Prosecutors (AF) have refused to vote or deliberate on the square in a clear protest against the maneuvers carried out in recent days by the attorney general to hand over the leadership of Democratic Memory to Delgado before being removed from office. This association asked yesterday for the resignation of the attorney general for this matter.
For his part, the member of the Professional and Independent Association of Prosecutors (APIF), Salvador Viada, has also shown his rejection of this appointment and has not voted either.. In addition, Viada unsuccessfully requested that García Ortiz refrain from appointing Delgado since the attorney general owes his promotion to the highest category of the race to the former minister and they are personal friends.
The members of both groups have raised in the meeting, which has taken place in an atmosphere of tension, that there was a clear “conflict of interest” in Delgado and, therefore, reasons for “incompatibility” for the position for being the sentimental partner of the former judge Baltasar Garzón, sole administrator of the Ilocad office, specialized in Human Rights.
The members of the AF requested that the position of Prosecutor of the Human Rights and Democratic Memory Chamber be withdrawn from the agenda, considering that Dolores Delgado García could be involved in a cause of incompatibility with those included in article 58 of the Organic Statute of the Ministry Fiscal. Meanwhile, Viada requested that the Council be suspended.
However, the Attorney General denied that the possible incompatibility for the position provided for in the Statute should be resolved as a prior procedure, considering it a prospective issue.. Álvaro García Ortiz maintained that when a situation of incompatibility could occur, it would be resolved individually and he went ahead with the vote for the square despite the majority opinion against the Fiscal Council.
Delgado against Viada
For her part, former minister Dolores Delgado sent a letter of recusal against the APIF president, whom she accused of hostility for having been ruled out for certain discretionary posts in the past by the former attorney general herself.. She also claimed to have been defamed by the counselor while she was State Attorney General in statements that exceeded professional criticism.. However, García Ortiz flatly rejected the aforementioned challenge despite the fact that Viada himself requested time to examine it in depth and rule on it.
Since Delgado de facto assumed -via decree- the functions of prosecutor of Democratic Memory in January, the public official and the businessman have made a tandem and shared different conferences on this matter, as reported by this newspaper.
As highlighted by her project of action submitted to the Fiscal Council, the former minister intends to promote a “macro-prosecutor's office” for investigations that constitute “violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including those that took place on the occasion of of the coup d'état, the war and the dictatorship» in our country.
Just three supports
In fact, the appointment of Dolores Delgado only had the support of the deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court, María Ángeles Sánchez Conde, the head of the Inspection, María Antonia Sanz and the member of the Progressive Union of Prosecutors (UPF), Santiago Ore. According to tax sources, the other member of the UPF has supported the prosecutor Juan Calparsoro for the position. Along with Delgado, the latter prosecutor from the Guipúzcoa Provincial Prosecutor's Office, the prosecutor from the Court of Accounts, Carlos Castresana (prosecutor in the Pinochet case) and Luis Ibáñez, Anti-Drug Prosecutor, aspired for the position.
The attorney general's proposal will now be submitted to the Council of Ministers of Pedro Sánchez, who has to carry out the discretionary appointment in the middle of the electoral period of the general elections of 23-J. Likewise, this appointment can be appealed before the Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court.
On the other hand, García Ortiz has proposed today Miguel Ángel Aguilar, until now a member of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Barcelona, for the position of prosecutor of the Hate Crimes Chamber.
Also, Jaime Goyena -in Navarra- and Julio Cano -of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands-, among other appointments, have been elected as senior prosecutors.