Several hundred citizens summoned via messages Whatsapp They gathered in front of the Supreme Court of Madrid to protest against the conviction of the State Attorney General, Álvaro García-Ortiz. The demonstration in Plaza Villa de París, called this Sunday at 11.30, was attended by former Justice Minister Dolores Delgado, current Coordinator Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory and García Ortiz’s predecessor at the helm of the State Attorney General, and former judge Baltasar Garzón.
Amid shouts of “shame”, “coup plotters in robes” or “this is politics, not justice”, some demonstrators carried signs: “No to law“- to denounce what they consider a political exaggeration on the part of the highest court of the judiciary. Last Thursday, November 20, coinciding with the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, the Second Section of the Supreme Court pronounced the sentence – the sentence has not yet been issued – against García Ortiz, convicted for “revelation of confidential data” of the boyfriend of the president of the Community of Madrid.
Together with Dolores Delgado, the demonstration was also attended by former National Court judge Baltasar Garzón, who was expelled from his judicial career after he was also convicted by the Supreme Court in 2012. Garzón said that García Ortiz’s sentence was “unjust” and “arbitrary”. And he criticized the fact that the sentence was brought forward without knowing the reasons for the sentence, which in his opinion represents a “victimisation” of the public prosecutor and a “disturbance” for the democratic system.
During the demonstration, a text written by “common people, democrats” and “without acronyms, flags, parties or platforms” was read to express solidarity with the attorney general. “We are concerned that the presumption of innocence was not respected in this trial and that the statements of witnesses relevant to the defense,” in reference to the numerous journalists who claimed to know the email regarding Ayuso’s boyfriend, Alberto González Amador, “were not considered with due attention,” the statement reads.
