The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has issued an order in which it asks the Senate to direct the criminal procedure against PP senator José Manuel Baltar for a crime against road safety for allegedly driving at 215 kilometers on a stretch of speed limited to 120 km on the A-52 highway, direction Benavente (Zamora) when he presided over the Ourense Provincial Council.
The court adopts this decision at the proposal of the magistrate-instructor of this case, Ana Ferrer, who last Wednesday presented a reasoned statement to the Chamber so that it could request authorization from the Chamber in order to suspend the immunity and proceed criminally against the accused. José Manuel Baltar upon finding rational evidence of the aforementioned crime against road safety. The request is a mandatory procedure to continue with the abbreviated procedure (equivalent to processing), which, since it involves a formal accusation, requires the authorization of the Upper House.
The reasoned exposition of Judge Ferrer explained that the evidence against Baltar is based on the report of the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard of April 23, 2023 on a section of the A-52 highway, near the Zamora region. from Sanabria, based on a control that recorded a speed of 215 km/h with a margin of error of 5%.
The judge made it clear that the fact that Baltar “had been administratively sanctioned for the same facts and, as he maintains, paid the corresponding financial penalty, which also led to the loss of some points on his driving license, does not object to the present criminal case.”
He thus responds to Baltar’s lawyer who, after his appearance in the Supreme Court, said that “the case is resolved” because they had already been held accountable for having paid the fine administratively in addition to the withdrawal of six points from the license, so that “there is no can reopen” a procedure that “has already been subject to sanction”, which is why he considered the request “inadmissible”.
That day, the former president of the Ourense Provincial Council also denied having committed a crime against road safety, since he maintained that he never exceeded 200 km/h, the minimum for it to be considered a crime. That speed is the minimum to be considered a crime, which is always 80 kilometers more than the maximum established in that section, which was 120 kilometers per hour. The margin of error is 10 km, therefore, anything from 210 is a crime.
The Criminal Chamber has agreed to suspend for now the processing of the actions referred to the senator while the Senate decides on the requested authorization.
