The Prosecutor’s Office has suspended a prosecutor and foured another 16 for disciplinary offenses since 2022 | Spain

The State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortizhas suspended a prosecutor and has fined another 16 for disciplinary offenses of 2022 until last year, according to the data collected by the country from A petition to the transparency portal of the institution. The promoter of the disciplinary action, a figure created in October 2022, has reported that the only professional sanctioned with the suspension of the service for a certain time is a prosecutor in Madrid, although he has not clarified the specific reason for that sanction or of the fines imposed in that period of just over two years, the only one on which he has responded.

The sanctions imposed on prosecutors for incurring some kind of disciplinary responsibility are little known. The memoirs that annually presents the State Attorney General (FGE) They are irregular in terms of the quantity and quality of the information provided. This newspaper has unsuccessfully requested the total number of sanctions of the last decade, for typologies. The analysis of the memoirs shows data that, although they cannot be systematized by the lagoons of the reports, are revealing: in the period between 2014 and 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office has only separated from the service (the most serious penalty) to a prosecutor, has temporarily suspended half a dozen and has fined about thirty.

The law that regulates the functioning of the Prosecutor’s Officeof 1981, provides the imposition of sanctions on its officials for minor offenses (warning or fine of up to 300 euros), serious (fine of up to 3,000 euros) and very serious (temporary suspension, forced transfer or separation of the service). The latter They include an extensive list of inappropriate behaviors: breach orders from superiors; join parties or exercise activities incompatible with office; cause repeated confrontations with other prosecutors; accumulate delays repeatedly and unjustified when processing matters; abuse the position to obtain favorable treatment; Reveal data that cause damage to third parties, among others.

The sins more frequent of prosecutors, those who end up deriving in the opening of files and the imposition of sanctions, have to do with a problem that It affects the entire justice system in Spain: slowness. The same reasons are repeated for a decade, according to detail the memories analyzed by this newspaper.

The « delays in the issuance of reports », the « alleged passivity » of the prosecutors when exercising their functions and the « neglect on the processing of procedures » focus a good part of the complaints of citizens who end up at the Table of the Fiscal Inspection. The lack of « motivation » of the writings and « disagreement with the assumed position » in the processes, especially those of criminal field, also motivate complaints and files. Victims and defendants They also express, although to a lesser extent, complaints about « the treatment received » by prosecutors, especially in situations of confrontation of family life or in marriage processes with minor children.

A prosecutor separated from the service

The memories presented by the former conservative Consuelo Madrigal and José Manuel Maza They are especially profuse about sanctions. In 2014, the only disciplinary file opened by facts “occurred on March 18, 2014” ended with the imposition of a sanction of 400 euros to a prosecutor for a serious lack of “inconsideration”. In 2015 there were three sanctions, and in two cases the prosecutors were suspended: one for two months and the other for three years. In 2016 there was the episode of greatest gravity: a prosecutor was separated from the service for violating “the regime of incompatibilities of the fiscal career”.

Memory data begin to be less concrete, even to scarce, from that moment. In 2017, a prosecutor was suspended for continuous delays. 2018, in the brief mandate of Julián Sánchez Melgar until it is replaced by María José Segarrathere is no data and the Prosecutor’s Office has not been able to contribute it. Not only are the sanctions imposed, but not even the two steps prior to these sanctions: the number of open information proceedings and the disciplinary files that derive from these proceedings are not mentioned.

In the following years some light returns, but without too much concretion. It follows from the memories that 2019 was especially convulsive: six files were opened with their corresponding suspension or fine sanctions, although it is not specified how many there were each type. Some of the six registered cases seem especially serious, such as an « abuse of the status of prosecutor » or a negative to observe « the duty of abstention by personal interest in procedures. »

In the mandates of the progressives Dolores Delgado (from 2020 in mid -2022) and Álvaro García Ortiz (until today) this not very detailed information of the procedures is followed; In some cases it is reported only from open disciplinary files, but not their result. It was in García Ortiz’s first mandate, in October 2022, when a key figure was implemented: the prosecutor of the disciplinary action, similar to what already existed for judges within the bosom General Council of the Judiciary (CGJP). The promoter has informed to transparency of the count of cases that include a suspension, firm, that same year, of the prosecutor of Madrid.