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Spain’s legal watchdog boss quits over judicial deadlock

The head of Spain's legal watchdog resigned on Monday in protest over the long-running political deadlock that has paralysed appointments to this key judicial body.

Spain's legal watchdog boss quits over judicial deadlock
Spanish king Felipe VI (R) looks at Supreme Court's president Carlos Lesmes during the formal opening of the legal year at the Supreme Court in Madrid in 2018. (Photo by Angel Díaz / POOL / AFP)

The stalemate, which began nearly four years ago, has paralysed appointments to the 20-member General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) which is responsible for appointing judges and ensuring the judiciary’s independence.

The Council’s mandate expired in December 2018 and it has since been operating on an interim basis because the ruling Socialists and the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) can’t agree on its makeup.

The deadlock has caused increasing problems in the functioning of the Spanish court system.

Carlos Lesmes, who has served as CGPJ head since 2013, formally resigned on Monday in protest at the ongoing situation.

In a statement, the watchdog said Lesmes, who was also head of Spain’s Supreme Court, had informed King Felipe VI “of his desire to immediately resign from his legal duties.”

In a statement announcing his intention to resign, released on Sunday, Lesmes said he had “lost all hope of change” and that staying any longer in his position “would only mean my complicity with a situation that I abhor, and which is unacceptable”.   

His decision was taken “out of respect” for the dignity of Spain’s legal institutions and judges “who rightly expected that the (politicians) representing them don’t remain indifferent about a situation that seriously compromises the credibility and functioning of the entire judiciary”.

Lesmes’ resignation had been on the cards for several weeks, as he sought to force a resolution to the political tug-of-war which has seen the two parties blaming each other for the stalemate.

Following his announcement, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez held three hours of emergency talks on Monday with opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

Known as Spain’s legal watchdog, the CGPJ has 20 members — 12 judges or magistrates and eight lawyers or other jurists — who must be elected by a three-fifths majority in Spain’s parliament.

But since its mandate expired in late 2018, Sanchez has been unable to push through appointments for lack of parliamentary support, notably from the PP.

Brussels has repeatedly chastised Spain over the impasse, with EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders urging both sides to ensure the CGPJ’s mandate was renewed “without delay” on a visit to Madrid late last month.

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POLITICS

First pardons granted under Spain’s amnesty for Catalan separatists

A politician and police officer on Tuesday became the first people to benefit from Spain's divisive amnesty law for Catalan separatists involved in a botched 2017 secession bid.

First pardons granted under Spain's amnesty for Catalan separatists

The amnesty law – approved last month – is expected to affect around 400 people facing trial or already convicted over their roles in the wealthy northeastern region’s failed independence push, which triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to grant the amnesty in exchange for the key support of Catalan separatist parties in parliament to secure a new term in office following an inconclusive general election last July.

READ ALSO: Spain’s contested Catalan amnesty bill comes into force

The separatist parties have threatened to withdraw their support for Sánchez’s minority government unless the amnesty is applied.

Catalonia’s High Court said it had decided to “declare the extinction of criminal responsibility” for former Catalan regional interior minister Miquel Buch, as well as to Lluís Escolà, an officer in Catalonia’s regional police force, since the crimes they were convicted of “have been amnestied”.

Buch was sentenced last year to four and a half years in jail for embezzlement and misappropriation for hiring Escolà in 2018 and paying him out of public coffers to act as a bodyguard for the former head of the regional Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, while he was in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Escolà was handed a four-year prison sentence for working as Puigdemont’s bodyguard.

Puigdemont fled Spain to avoid arrest shortly after his government led Catalonia’s failed secession push, which involved an independence referendum that was banned by the courts followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.

Spain’s conservative opposition has staged massive street protests against the amnesty law, which judges must decide to apply on a case-by-case basis.

Puigdemont had said he hopes to return to Spain but there is still a warrant for his arrest and a Spanish court continues to investigate him for the alleged crimes of embezzlement and disobedience related to the secession bid.

He also remains under investigation for alleged terrorism over protests in 2019 against the jailing of several referendum leaders that sometimes turned violent.

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