The Board of Prosecutors of Sala, the main advisory body of the Attorney General of the State, has endorsed the dismissal of the complaint filed against the Prosecutor’s Office by Alberto González Amador, partner of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. This was the position defended by the number two of the Prosecutor’s Office, the lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, María Ángeles Sánchez Conde, against the opinion of the prosecutor on whom the case fell, María de la O Silva, who believes that there are indications of a crime and wanted to continue with the investigation. Silva’s refusal to accept the criteria of her superior is what prompted the meeting on Wednesday, in which the top prosecutors debated the issue to establish their position. The debate ended with 19 in favor of dismissal, 12 against and one abstention. The decision of the Board was not binding, so Sánchez Conde could have requested the case to be dismissed even with the opposition of this body, which includes the 36 prosecutors of Sala, the highest category in the career. But maintaining that position against the top prosecutors would have opened a new internal rift in the Prosecutor’s Office, which is in constant tension due to the confrontation between a sector and the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, and his right-hand woman, Sánchez Conde.
The meeting on Wednesday was called after the prosecutor who received the complaint from González Amador opposed the order she received from the number two of the institution to position herself in favor of dismissing that lawsuit. Prosecutor Silva requested the activation of article 27 of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which allows the case to be elevated to the board of prosecutors when it is considered that an “improper” or “contrary to law” instruction has been received from superiors. A total of 36 prosecutors were invited to the meeting, but four were unable to attend and eventually 32 attended. The Attorney General of the State, Álvaro García Ortiz, who usually presides over meetings of this body, was also not present but abstained in this case after assuming “responsibility” for the document that gave rise to the complaint against the public ministry: a press release published by the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Madrid on March 14 denying the information that the team of the Madrid president was spreading against that institution after the opening of an investigation into her boyfriend for alleged tax offenses.
The partner of Ayuso and the Illustrious Bar Association of Madrid (ICAM) took that statement to court, considering that it revealed confidential information from the investigation to González Amador. The prosecutor to whom the ICAM complaint was assigned recommended dismissal, but Prosecutor Silva, who received the complaint from Ayuso’s partner, believes that there are indications of a crime and wanted to carry out a series of formalities. The Lieutenant Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, who urged Silva to request the dismissal of the investigation. Silva’s refusal to comply with this order is what has led to the meeting of the top of the public ministry. The session was opened by Sánchez Conde, who described the events and defended her position. The Lieutenant Prosecutor argued that the press release from the Prosecutor’s Office does not constitute a crime of disclosure of secrets, among other reasons, because the information it contained was publicly known. The Lieutenant Prosecutor cited case law from the Supreme Court of similar cases in which the judges considered that freedom of information prevailed. After the intervention of the number two of the Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Silva entered the meeting and expressed her opinion in favor of continuing the investigation and explained why she requested the activation of article 27 of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Silva left the meeting after her intervention, and it was at that point that the Prosecutors of Sala began to speak. They did so in order of least to most seniority, and in the early turns, in which the prosecutors who were promoted to the highest category under the mandate of García Ortiz or his predecessor, Dolores Delgado, all the interventions were in favor of dismissing the case. The session was interrupted from 12:30 to 15:00 so that the prosecutors could attend the farewell of their colleague José Luis Bueren, who until a few days ago was a member of this Board. The top prosecutors reconvened at 15:00 and it was from there that the most critical interventions with the positions of the heads of the public ministry were heard.
