A court in Badalona (Barcelonès Nord) has closed the case against the deputy mayor of Human Resources in municipal functions, Manel Sorribas, accused of hiding 15 files of information reserved for agents of the Urban Police and for inaction before a “covert strike ” in the body.
The order issued by the investigating court 4 of Badalona decreed the provisional dismissal of the case, which is now final since the Prosecutor’s Office – the only accusation in the case after the complainants finally did not appear – has not appealed.
The Union of Commanders of the Local Police of Catalonia (SICPOL) filed a complaint last January against Sorribas for allegedly concealing fifteen files of information reserved for local police officers and for his inaction in the face of a “covert strike” in the force .
In the complaint, the union of managers attributed to the fifth deputy mayor and councilor for Finance and Human Resources of the Badalona City Council, now in office, the crimes of infidelity in the custody of documents, omission of the duty to prosecute crimes and fraud to the Social Security.
The Investigating Court 4 of Badalona admitted SICPOL’s complaint for processing and agreed to carry out various investigative procedures to determine if the facts denounced constituted a crime. In the order to file the case, the judge considers that “intent on the part of the investigated party is not proven”, since “he himself gave specific orders so that none of the proceedings that had given rise to the reserved information from the Badalona Urban Guard”. The court considers that “no delay or intention to delay or not process the aforementioned files” can be attributed to the person investigated.
Regarding the alleged covert strike, the court considers that Sorribas informed the Superintendent of the Urban Guard of the facts as soon as he found out about them so that he could report on “any evidence they might have to prove” the strike.
Sorribas has explained that “without any doubt” the complaint is part of revenge, since he has stated that the union that presented it “had to retract” and that the judicial investigation continued ex officio.
The councilor links the complaint with his decision to suspend the payment of some allegedly irregular overtime that some officers of the body received, and has pointed out that it was some senior officials of the municipal police who used SICPOL “as a complainant so as not to show their faces “.
