The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands sentences magistrate Manuel Penalva and prosecutor Miguel Ángel Subíran to 9 years in prison for three crimes of obstruction of Justice and one crime of coercion. The Chamber also condemns them for omitting the duty to pursue leaks to the media of reserved or secret actions to a maximum penalty of 2 years of special disqualification for employment or public office.
The judge and the prosecutor have been sentenced as a result of the investigations they carried out into alleged corruption in the awarding of the ORA service of the Palma City Council. When they were investigating the case, the judge and prosecutor ordered the arrest of nine Palma City Council officials, businessman Antonio Roig and two PP politicians. Penalva and Subírán were in charge of investigating the ‘Cursach case’, with serious accusations against the Mallorcan nightlife magnate who finally came to nothing with the withdrawal of all accusations in the trial.
In the case of the investigation carried out by Penalva and Subarán in the ‘ORA case’, the Court considers it proven that innocent people were arrested but appreciates that at the time of the arrests there were suspicions that the assistance of the O.R.A. it could have been rigged. Among others, the investigating judge ordered the arrest of the parents and brothers of the Popular Party politician Álvaro Gijón.
The ruling indicates that they were made with the sole purpose of pressuring the politician to confess his participation in the manipulation of the competition for the regulation of Palma’s parking system. However, the Court does not convict the defendants of the crime of illegal detention of any of them.
The custodial sentences are due to the pressure exerted on two City Council officials on the occasion of the statements they gave in Court as those under investigation; and about the businessman Antonio Roig, due to the pressure he received since he was even in preventive detention.
On the other hand, the conviction for the crime of coercion responds to the pressure exerted on Álvaro Gijón due to the statement he had to give as an investigator the day after the arrest of his relatives. In the sentence, the Chamber condemns the sub-inspector of the National Police Miguel Ángel Blanco, the agent Iván Bandera and the inspector Blanca Ruiz for pressure exerted on the businessman Antonio Roig and his wife.
The Court also condemns Blanco and Bandera for coercion for their participation in the coercion of the politician Álvaro Gijón. The Chamber imposed a sentence of 3 years and 10 months in prison plus a fine on sub-inspector Miguel Ángel Blanco; Iván Bandera was sentenced to 2 years and 4 months in prison; and Blanca Ruiz was sentenced to 1 year and two months in prison.
On the other hand, the Court condemns the Judge, the Prosecutor and the Police officers sentenced to jointly and severally compensate Álvaro Gijón for moral damage in the amount of 6,500 euros. The sentence is not final, an appeal is possible before the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.
