The CGPJ unanimously declares itself against the commissions for 'lawfare': Judges have no obligation to go

Urges Congress and Senate not to call the togados and warns that it will support them

The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) reached an unusual unanimous agreement this Thursday to reject the newly created parliamentary investigation commissions that aim to detect alleged cases of 'lawfare' and clarify that judges and magistrates are not obliged to appear in court. the same if they are called, even when they are warned that they may incur criminal liability if they do not appear.

Furthermore, according to the approved text, to which Europa Press has had access, the 16 members that currently make up the CGPJ have recalled that "each power must limit its actions to its respective scope."

Thus, they have urged the Congress and Senate to refrain from summoning judges and magistrates and, if they do not comply, they have instructed the officers who are called to notify the CGPJ, which will deny them permission to attend.

From the Plenary Session of the governing body of the judges, they have expressed their "absolute respect" for the autonomy of the Cortes so that they can create as many investigative commissions as they deem appropriate, but they have disgraced that "prominent spokespersons for the parliamentary groups" have urged that in These require the appearance of judges and magistrates.

The CGPJ has recalled that one of its duties as a constitutional body is to "guarantee judicial independence at all times and under any circumstances." And he has warned that these parliamentary commissions "lack the powers to call testimonies before them and investigate judges and magistrates on matters that they know or have known in their work of judging and enforcing what is judged."

In this sense, he explained that judges and magistrates are "fully subject to the Constitution and the laws and subject to disciplinary and criminal responsibility when they incur in cases classified as infractions or crimes, respectively."

As specified, infractions correspond "exclusively" to the CGPJ and crimes to the judicial bodies. "These conditions are obviously not met by the members of the parliamentary investigation committees, since in the end, their representative function is carried out on a strictly political level and is oriented and limited, as far as it matters here, to the demands of responsibilities" to the judges.

Finally, the CGPJ has taken advantage of its statement to call for "the renewal of this Council to proceed as soon as possible and to put an end to the constitutional anomaly", which "has far exceeded the limit of what is tolerable."

The Plenary has ruled in this way after having debated the legality of said commissions at the request of the conservative members, who considered it necessary for the body to adopt a "resounding position" against the "harassment" of judges and magistrates.

BOLAÑOS MATCHES

Already last Tuesday, the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, clarified in the press conference after the Council of Ministers that judges "have no obligation to attend parliamentary commissions of inquiry."

These movements take place after the Congress of Deputies agreed last week to create three investigative commissions to investigate the so-called 'Operation Catalonia', the Islamist attacks that took place in Barcelona and Cambrils (Tarragona) in August 2017 and the espionage on the independentists with the 'Pegasus' program.

The CGPJ has already expressed its "frontal opposition" to these parliamentary commissions up to two times, warning that it will act through "legally established channels" if necessary.

Their origin is part of the agreement reached by the PSOE and Junts to invest Pedro Sánchez as president of the Government, where there is talk of creating investigative commissions whose conclusions "will be taken into account in the application of the amnesty law to the extent that they could." situations that fall within the concept of 'lawfare' or judicialization of politics may arise, with the consequences that, where appropriate, may give rise to liability actions."