The General Council of Justice (CGPJ) is beginning to worry about the news published by prosecutors and judges on social networks. Not when the judge gives an opinion on legal or labor issues, or makes references to his private life, which in most cases is not a problem, but when he starts to judge the work of other colleagues, etc., sometimes including outbursts, political Ask current events that may cause you to lose the appearance of impartiality. To curb the most serious cases, the CGPJ has called for an update to the Courts Organization Act (LOPJ) of 1985 to sanction conduct that the law does not provide for because it was not approved at the time.
The lawsuit arose in the case of Manuel Piñar, judge of the Criminal Court 1 of Granada, who sentenced Rivas in July 2018 to five years in prison and six years of loss of parental authority for two crimes of kidnapping minors, a sentence later reduced by the Supreme Court and by the government was pardoned. The CGPJ Disciplinary Board opened a file against Piñar in March for very serious (unexcusable ignorance in the performance of judicial duties) or serious misconduct (lack of consideration for citizens) in various postings on his Facebook account. However, the council closed the investigation without sanctioning the judge, after verifying that none of the articles of the law governing the punishment of judges correspond to the crimes committed by Piñar.
The investigation began with the complaint of Rivas’ lawyer, who provided evidence of numerous messages published by Piñar (who deleted these texts when the CGPJ began investigating him), in which he accused the government in particular of the equality policies he described as “slop” and “feminist communism”. In particular, he sued the leaders of the PSOE and Podemos (“the left is turning into a drug cartel,” he said) and even the Supreme Court, of which he wrote after the verdict in the ERE case: “Time will tell.” How far do we have trash of justice and the main one is the supreme court? In Aránguez’s complaint, the lawyer stated that all of these publications “extremely exceed the limits of freedom of expression, especially considering that they were published by a legal practitioner,” according to Europa Press.
The CGPJ’s decision, following the archiving of the investigation, suggests that the judge’s messages are reprehensible but that it is not currently possible to act against him under the present law. “The publication of certain opinions by a member of the legal profession on a social network – completely independent of the opinion, which in turn each of us deserves – when there is no explicit reference to his professional status in such a medium or when it is understandable that his intervention done in a private capacity, since a common citizen has hitherto lacked typicality,” says the supporter of the disciplinary authority. In this sense, the Permanent Commission – the highest decision-making body after the plenary session – has agreed to take note of the file, “considering that the legislature should assess the need to review and update the types of disciplinary sanctions contained in the organic law provided for by the judiciary”.
This is not the first time that the CGPJ has filed disciplinary investigations for opinions expressed on networks. In May 2022, he ruled out sanctioning a judge from Barcelona who had called for the “knockdown” on Twitter under a pseudonym. any appeal that might be made by the Generalitat, claiming that such action would be “not subterfuge, but rather reciprocity.”
Judge Manuel Piñar told EL PAÍS that the disciplinary file, now on file, is “nonsense” which he asserts has caused him and his entourage “serious harm”, for which he reiterates that he is considering filing a complaint against members of the party to be submitted to the Standing Commission of the CGPJ, which voted to open the file, “without prejudice to any claims for liability against the Council”. In addition, Piñar assures that “there is harassment by the Council of certain members of the judiciary, a consequence of the access of persons linked to political parties”.
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In any case, Piñar assures that the outcome of his case could not be different from that of the case, because “it was already known that no judge can be disciplinary sanctioned for acts in his private life that are outside his professional activity, without this to do.” Allusion to his status as a judge. And there are even fewer guarantees for the truthfulness of some supposedly obtained publications and without an expert opinion on authenticity, as required by case law. Piñar believes that it is easy to change screenshots these days, “and so the case law requires verification by the source.” The Standing Commission knew this because the promoter already expressed this in its report and went too far by saying did not take this into account and decided to open a disciplinary file.
On the other hand, Carlos Aránguez, the lawyer who reported the judge, told this newspaper that he respected the decision and even disagreed with the idea that the judge was not identified as such: “He identified himself as the head of the judiciary.” “commented the judge. Attorney, “and numerous judges and magistrates responded to his publications as compi or ‘companion’.” The attorneys who have spoken also address him as “Your Honor,” and besides, if he wanted to remain anonymous, he would have one chosen a name that did not identify him, or withheld his publications from his friends, as he later did and so it is now.” . For Aránguez, “It is obvious that his profession was well known.”
The lawyer is left with the request of the CGPJ to review the organic law of the judiciary: “If this serves to draw attention to the excesses that certain members of the legal and prosecutorial profession sometimes commit, I think it is worthwhile the time devoted to it use.” “, is completed. While there is a possibility of appeal against this decision in court, the lawyer has confirmed that he will not proceed with it.
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