The former president of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Griñán, will not serve in jail the sentence of six years and one day that was imposed on him for a crime of embezzlement of public funds for the ERE case.

The First Section of the Provincial Court of Seville has agreed to suspend for a period of five years the execution of prison imposed on Griñán, according to an order notified this Monday to the parties.

In the order, dated today and before which an appeal can be filed, the court thus agrees to the request for suspension of the custodial sentence made by the defense of Griñán based on article 80.4 of the Penal Code, which provides that judges and courts may grant the suspension of any sentence imposed without being subject to any requirement in the event that the prisoner is afflicted with a very serious illness with incurable conditions.

On June 21, the Seville Anti-Corruption Prosecutor announced that it was not opposed to Griñán, 77 years old and sentenced to six years, avoiding prison due to “very serious” cancer, a decision that came after of the report issued by the coroner that advised against admission to jail as he was suffering from “a very serious illness with incurable conditions”.

With this decision of the Court, a judicial journey is put to an end in which up to two IML reports and a request from the magistrates to the coroner have been necessary to rule on the entry or not of Griñán’s prison, which has concluded with the order of this Monday agreeing to the request of the defense to suspend the entry into jail.

Griñán was diagnosed with prostate cancer when the Justice ordered his imprisonment to serve the sentence for embezzlement and prevarication that the Seville Court had imposed on him and later confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The magistrates of the First Section of the Court of Seville consider in the order that “they cannot but agree to the suspension” of the custodial sentence for a period of five years with the legal warnings “in view” of the forensic doctor’s report and also taking into account the reports of the accusations that do not oppose this concession.

The resolution of the Court recalls that the granting of the benefit of the suspension of the execution of the custodial sentence “is a discretionary power of the judge or court”, and that, in the case of article 80.4 of the Penal Code, “in that scope of discretion must be taken into account that the prisoner is suffering from a very serious illness with incurable conditions “”.

“It will be necessary to be aware of the right to life and physical integrity of the convicted person, taking into account the type of disease and the greater or lesser incidence that the admission to prison of the person suffering from it would have on it,” highlights the First Section of the audience.

The First Chamber of the Hearing recalls that, in this case, Griñán was already granted “a postponement on the decision to suspend the execution of the sentence until the radiotherapy sessions were concluded”, and that the IML was He sent a new official letter as a result of subsequent reports to be able to “resolve the request” for the execution of the sentence.

In this way, it explains that, on June 15, 2023, the IML forensic doctor issued a report concluding that Griñán “is afflicted with a very serious illness with incurable conditions in the terms established in article 80.4 of the Penal Code, without prejudice to the considerations that are added in this forensic medical report that make his admission to a penitentiary center inadvisable.”

The First Section of the Hearing emphasizes that “this court” in cases such as the present, referring to medical issues, is subject to the technical criteria of the expert in the matter whose knowledge is essential to be able to resolve on the merits of the legal issues raised ”.

Griñán is the only high-ranking official of the Junta de Andalucía in the PSOE stage convicted of the case of the ERE who has not gone to jail, since at the beginning of this year four of the eight former high-ranking officials did so: the former directors José Antonio Viera, Francisco Vallejo, Carmen Martínez Aguayo and Antonio Fernández.

The former Vice Minister of Innovation Jesús María Rodríguez and the former director of the Idea Agency Miguel Ángel Serrano also went to prison, and in April the former Vice Minister of Employment Agustín Barberá, who also suffers from cancer but the Justice determined that he could go to jail.

A few days ago, former Employment Minister José Antonio Viera was granted the third degree regime due to a serious illness and will serve the rest of the sentence at the Social Integration Center (CIS) in Huelva.