The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has approved strengthening the courts of First Instance and Investigation numbers 1 and 2 in the town of Barbate, in the province of Cadiz, with an additional judge for at least six months. These courts are investigating the deaths of two civil guards whose boat was collided by a narco-boat on February 9th. In a meeting with the presidents of the provincial courts of Cadiz and Huelva, the two Andalusian provinces with the most overloaded courts due to drug trafficking cases, the CGPJ’s permanent commission has reported an Inspection report warning that the workload in these two courts exceeded by 34.2% the limit establish by the Council last year. The only exception was in Barbate, where the workload was at 96.4%, slightly below the recommended maximum.
The reinforcement of the Barbate courts will consist of assigning substitute judge María Eulalia Chanfreut to these two courts, who was already working there covering for a sick leave, but will now stay to support the main judge. This measure aims to alleviate a situation described as “worrying” by the judges of Barbate in a letter sent on February 14th to the High Court of Andalusia and to which El País had access. The CGPJ and the Ministry of Justice have responded to this request, which already has economic authorization from the Government for six months, renewable.
The report on the situation of the courts in Cadiz and Huelva was presented on Thursday to the presidents of both Audiences and the chief judges. The study focuses on the judicial districts of Barbate, La Línea de la Concepción, and Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Cadiz, and Ayamonte and Moguer in Huelva. All, except Barbate, exceed the workload indicators set by the CGPJ. The backlog in all courts is high: 945.5 civil cases last year, higher than the national average of 765.4, and 774.4 criminal cases, double the national average of 374.2. The Council’s experts warn that this accumulation of cases is not due to “lack of dedication or poor performance” of the courts, which also exceed the set indicators.
The report proposes several measures to address these problems, such as unifying the judicial districts of Algeciras, La Línea de la Concepción, and San Roque; creating a new Court of First Instance and Investigation in Moguer and Sanlúcar de Barrameda; and adopting extraordinary reinforcement measures, like the one approved for Barbate, in the courts of La Línea de la Concepción, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Ayamonte, and Moguer. The CGPJ also advocates for legislative reforms, including one that has long been advocated by the Prosecutor’s Office: amending article 65.1ºd) of the Organic Law of the Judiciary for the National Court to take on drug trafficking cases that are “particularly serious” without the need for them to have effects in different provinces. Currently, central courts investigate drug trafficking crimes committed by organized groups only when they have effects in different provinces, not when the operations are limited to a single province, even if the network extends internationally.
