The Lawyers' strike forces the National Court to suspend new statements in the 'Villarejo case'

MADRID, 13 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Central Court of Instruction Number 6, in which the so-called 'Villarejo case' is being investigated, has been forced to suspend four statements scheduled for this Thursday in part 14 of the macro-cause on the now retired commissioner due to the indefinite strike of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice (LAJ).

Legal sources have confirmed to Europa Press that this Monday the suspension of summonses has been notified in this separate piece in which Judge Manuel García Castellón investigates the alleged commission of the businessman Luis Ángel García Cancio to José Manuel Villarejo to coerce his sister and brother-in-law after they allegedly embezzled €12 million in gold bullion while he was in prison in Italy.

The same Court was already forced on January 31 to suspend a testimony framed in piece 9 of 'Tandem', in which the magistrate inquires into the BBVA contracts with Villarejo.

The Instruction Center 6 also had to suspend six declarations last week on two different days in the 'Acuamed case' as a result of the indefinite strike. It should be remembered that in the 'Acuamed' branch investigated in this Court, alleged crimes of embezzlement are investigated, as well as fraud, bribery, falsehood, prevarication, influence peddling, belonging to a criminal organization and machination to alter the price of public tenders .

The conflict has its origin in "the lack of salary adequacy to the greater functions and responsibilities attributed by Law 13/2009, discharged to judges, and increased in successive reforms", especially that of 2015, which -they denounce- - has caused an "unbearable imbalance".

The conveners point out as a "trigger" of the conflict the agreement that Justice signed in December 2021 with the unions of the general bodies "without properly developing the salary adjustment to the latest procedural reforms provided for in the second paragraph of Additional Provision 157 of the Law 11/2020 of the General State Budget for 2021".

Before the strike began, the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, asked the strike committee to avoid "maximalist positions" because they prevented "good agreements". For his part, the Secretary of State for Justice, Antonio 'Tontxu' Rodríguez, assured that the LAJ strike was a "political" measure and that it was "out of place".

Rodríguez stressed that "any type of economic claim that takes place in this strike does not make sense", since the Ministry "has complied with all the agreements" reached with the representation of these workers.

In statements to the press, the Secretary of State asked the LAJ "to realize the damage they are doing" with their strike. Likewise, he considered that it is a "chance" that the indefinite strikes take place this week and this year, despite the fact that, according to the workers themselves, "they have been very angry since 2009."

"The right to strike is in the Constitution and it seems perfect to me, but citizens are being seriously harmed," said Rodríguez, noting that appointments scheduled for months of weddings or procedures that have been open for four or five years are being postponed.

On the sidelines, the director of the cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, Óscar López, told the LAJ that they are "an essential piece" of the Judiciary and expressed his "confidence" that the negotiations with the Ministry "can conclude in a reasonable agreement and satisfying."

In a letter sent to a member of the strike committee, to which Europa Press has had access, López highlighted the work of the lawyers and stressed that for this reason "the Government, through the Ministry of Justice, only the After 2022, it launched the reform of the specific complement and two programs to improve the remuneration of the members of the body in terms of tickets and registrations, and in terms of substitutions".

This is how they spoke from Moncloa before the letter that three LAJ associations sent to President Pedro Sánchez to ask him to adopt the "necessary measures" to redirect the conflict he is having with the Ministry and avoid the indefinite strike that began on Tuesday, January 24.