The National Court refuses to remove judge Gadea from the investigation of former judge Presencia

MADRID, 17 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court has refused to remove magistrate Joaquín Gadea from the case of former judge Fernando Presencia, who is being investigated for alleged crimes of libel, slander and against high-ranking State institutions for the accusations launched against magistrates of the Supreme Court (TS).

Legal sources have explained to Europa Press that the Criminal Chamber has ruled out the challenge raised by Presencia and by two other investigated persons, Álvaro Arteaga and Juan Martínez Grasa, who urged the reinforcing magistrate of the Central Investigating Court Number 6 to give a step to the side

It was last September when Judge Gadea received the recusal letters of the three investigated. So, he decided to unite them "in a single incident given the coincidence of reasons alleged by all of them" to ask him to withdraw from the cause.

Gadea began to investigate on June 21 following a complaint filed by the chief prosecutor of the AN, Jesús Alonso, against Presencia for the statements made regarding Supreme Court magistrates, including the then president of the high court and the Council General of the Judiciary, Carlos Lesmes.

It should be remembered that on June 10 the TS already denounced Presencia before the CGPJ for spreading "radically false" and "slanderous" accusations that bear no relation to the "truth" about the patrimonial situation of the magistrates of the high court.

In this context, the instructor asked the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard to carry out the appropriate inquiries to determine those possibly affected by the publications made on the former judge's website, as well as the existence in other channels of the contents disseminated by Presence.

It also ordered the closure of said website to put an end to "the permanent situation of attack against the legal assets of the victims and the State institutions that are being impudently infringed by the accused." For this, he requested the help of the French authorities because the domain was geolocated in the neighboring country.

On July 7, Presencia refused to submit to a psychiatric analysis by the doctor from the National Court, similarly refusing to answer the questions of the judge investigating the alleged slander that he would have directed against different magistrates.

"There are no statements," he responded to his departure from the National Court, where he was summoned from 9:00 a.m. to be examined by the coroner. The objective of this test, agreed by Gadea, was to determine if he suffered from any pathology that made him inimputable.