Arrival at constitutional Court of two criminal lawyers from the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, the conservative Conception Mirrorhe and the progressive Ramón Sáez Valcárcel, will allow to reinforce the response that this body must give to matters that have accumulated in recent months in the guarantee body and have to do with dinternational law, issues raised before European courts, Euroorders or extradition processes.
Until now, this specialization was lacking, so its incorporation will be vital in the coming months, especially in matters related to the resources that still need to be resolved on the cause of the ‘process’ pro-independence in Catalonia -among them that of the ex-vice-president Oriol Junqueras-, or the problems generated by the escape of the expresident and European parliamentarian Carles Puigdemont and other pro-independence leaders, point to ‘El Periódico de España’ legal sources.
The last resort of this type to enter was last week, when Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzálo Boye, on behalf of the former president and the ‘ex-councilors’ accompanying him on his escape, Clara Ponsatí, Toni Comín and Lluís Puig I lodge an appeal against a previous decision of the Constitutional Court that endorsed the Euro-orders issued against him. It also proposes that in the foreseeable case that it is rejected again, a question referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The arrival of Espejel and Sáez has caused surprise in legal fields both due to the fact that both belong to the same room of the Criminal Court of the National Court -and the same section, the First-, as per not be judges of the Supreme Court or professors of special prestige, as is usually the profile of jurists who have reached the Constitutional Court in the last renovations. In some cases, this circumstance has been criticized referring to an alleged lack of level of the new incorporations.
Sources of the Constitutional Court consulted do not see it that way, that highlight the high legal level of both criminal lawyers above political sensitivity that can be attributed to them. They both know international criminal law and are experts in the processing of Euro-orders and extraditions, some matters that make up the day-to-day of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, which is the one that carries out both the deliveries of alleged criminals claimed by other countries and the claim of Spaniards who commit crimes abroad.
It so happens that the only two criminal lawyers that were currently in the constitutional law, which are Candido Conde-Pumpido and Antonio NarvaezThey cannot participate in the amparos filed by the convicted pro-independence leaders, nor in everything derived from the arrest warrants issued by the Supreme Court against Puigdemont and other fugitives for having withdrawn from these matters. after being refused.
Covered by experts in Litigation
In the Constitutional Court there are now several specialists in contentious-administrative, Ricardo Enriquez and Santiago Martínez-Vares, both from the Third Chamber of the Administrative Court together with the current president, Juan Jose Gonzalez Rivas, from the same Chamber and to which the civilista can join Juan Antonio Xiol, which nevertheless also came from the Litigation Chamber where he entered in 1986 for the turn of specialists and was until 2005. The only criminal prosecutor due to his past as a prosecutor, Narváez, also served as chief prosecutor of the Supreme Administrative Chamber.
The sources consulted point out that their work has been essential, and especially taking into account the stage in which the Constitutional Court accumulated on all Matters related to conflicts of jurisdiction between the autonomous communities and the StateAlthough these resources are no longer so many and, on the contrary, there seemed to be a deficit in the number of criminal prosecutors in the guarantee body. They are joined by the Constitutional Professors as Pedro González-Trevijano O Maria Luisa Balaguer, completing the legal level of the court.
In other words, after an initial stage in this body aimed above all at clarifying the scope of the rights of the new Constitution, where above all constitutional experts were needed; The time has come to reinforce the contentious aspect on the issue of conflicts of jurisdiction; and now we are faced with matters of international scope related to Euroorders and international requirements for which the best experts are also required.
Opposing profiles
Espejel is the current president of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, whose closeness to the former secretary of the PP María Dolores de Cospedal is remembered. It is, in any case, the first woman to propose this training for the Constitutional Court, in addition to a reputed criminal lawyer who holds the presidency of a body that handles matters of great complexity such as the National High Court.
In this Chamber, it has been challenged on several occasions by the defenses in cases in which the PP or one of its members have been investigated, being removed from the gürtel case, and recently, it formulated a private opinion in the sentence that acquitted the best of the mossos, Josep Luís Trapero. But this does not detract from its high legal level, according to the same sources.
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As for the progressive side, the entry of Inmaculada Montalván, an expert in gender violence and who has served in criminal, civil and litigation bodies, and especially the Criminal Magistrate of the National Court Ramón Sáez Valcárcel supposes some reinforcement , since they become part of an organ that will once again have five progressive judges versus seven conservatives.
Sáez Valcárcel is a highly recognized magistrate in the career and eternal candidate for the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, which, according to some sources consulted, could never enter precisely because of his marked progressive profile.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com