Spain’s justice system in one of the most prominent bastions of Spain’s past fascist Franco regime
Toni Strubell is a former MP in the Catalan Parliament, journalist, and author of What Catalans Want
Núria Bassa Camps is a Catalan writer and photographer
Llegeix en català AQUI
Gonzalo Boye is one of the most outstanding and committed lawyers in the current Spanish judicial landscape. Based in Madrid, this Chilean lawyer is professor of Criminal Procedural Law at the Madrid Lawyers Association’s Study Centre, advisor both to the European Centre for Human and Constitutional Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin and to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. Falsely accused of having collaborated with ETA in the 90s, he spent six years in prison (1996-2002) being suspended as a member of the conservative Madrid Lawyers Association. He has also participated as a lawyer in trials of great media impact, such as that held for the Madrid Jihadist attacks of March 11, 2004, an attempt to prosecute the United States government -no less- for crimes in Guantánamo or the case of Edward Snowden and the revelations he made about the global surveillance network. Since 2017 he has been the lawyer coordinating the international defense of the exiled members of the Government of President Carles Puigdemont. And as such, he has not only acted as a lawyer and advisor, but it can be said that he has become a strategist and brilliant columnist of the independence movement associated with Puigdemont who has so far ensured his freedom and access to his seat as MEP against all Spanish attempts to prevent it. It’s no surprise that Boyé’s curriculum, fully inspired in democratic radicalism, has made him become the black beast of the Spanish establishment and Deep State.
The great “opportunity” presented to the State to “take revenge” on Boye now comes with the Mito case in which Boye defended a famous Galician drug dealer named José Ramón Prado Bugallo, better known as “Sito Miñanco”, who was involved in 2018 in an attempt to import four tons of cocaine. Since last November 18, the case is being judged in the sinister Audiencia Nacional, a court of a profile that does not exist in many democratic countries where the great “state causes” are defended. The prosecutor accuses Boye – who acted as Miñanco’s lawyer – of having contributed to money laundering and calls for a 9-year prison sentence. Boye denies having committed any form of illegal act and complains that, throughout the procedure, his fundamental rights have been violated with a prospective investigation that he believes jeopardizes the role of the lawyer. There is evidence that the Prosecutor’s Office is basing its accusation against Boye on the change of statement made by an alleged murderer in exchange for going free.
In his first statements before the judge, Boye stated that he was being accused for having conducted his role as lawyer. He said that he had been illegally investigated and falsely accused. Luckily the court has accepted fresh evidence that would prove that a meeting he allegedly held with a drug dealer did not even take place. Boye also provided a clandestine recording he made of the lawyer of an investigated person admitting that his client had framed him after receiving a visit from the police in prison, shortly after which the prisoner was mysterioulsy released. Finally, the lawyer’s defense also alleged that in the search of his home and his office the police had also confiscated documentation of cases that had nothing to do with this one, a factor that would have negatively affected the procedural strategy for his defense in this trial. This even led him to call for the full annulment of the investigation process. (It should be remembered that Gonzalo Boye’s office in Madrid has been the subject of mysterious assaults -such as one that took place in January 2020- during which showed evidence that the office servers had been tampered with. Could this not be attributed to the secret services? Boye himself spoke on that occasion of “intimidation” against his work. He directly associated the assault with the legal defense he was carrying out of President Puigdemont. Could his prosecution today not be put down to the very same cause?
International support for Boye
As was to be expected, Boye’s trial has become a point of tension not only in the Spanish judicial sphere, but also in the international arena. Prominent figures in international law and human rights, such as Wolfgang Kaleck – director of the European Center for Human and Constitutional Rights – have denounced that this trial is nothing more than a further step in the use of lawfare to delegitimize the Catalan independence movement. A letter signed by Kaleck and twelve other lawyers addressed to the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, expresses concern about the apparent politicization of the accusations and questions their impartiality. The letter points out that the accusations against Boye (for money laundering and document falsification) seem to have to do with his role as a lawyer for Catalan politicians associated with the independence Process, particularly following the 2017 Referendum. The signatories, acknowledged international jurists, demand that a fair trial be guaranteed and that there be an investigation into whether there are political motivations behind the case. According to Kaleck, it is clear that the Spanish judicial system has been used to repress not only political leaders, but also professionals who have acted in their defense. “It is alarming” he adds “that in a state that is defined as democratic, the confidential relationship between a lawyer and his clients, an essential pillar in any fair legal system, can be queried”. He extends his criticism to the abandonment that Boye has suffered by the Spanish legal community, which has maintained a silence that he claims “would never be allowed in Germany or other countries with solid democratic traditions”.
Implications for the independence Process
This trial not only affects Boye professionally but also has direct repercussions on the defense of Catalan leaders in Europe. Boye is a key figure in the legal struggle that has so far managed to prevent Puigdemont and other exiles’ extradition to Spain, and any attack on his credibility could strategically weaken those causes. In addition, the perception of a political use of justice reinforces the pro-independence discourse that denounces repression and persecution against dissent. For the independence movement, the support of international lawyers gives validity to its discourse before the global community. The judicialization of the Catalan conflict, which has over the years been denounced by several human rights organizations, once again places Spain under scrutiny. As Kaleck points out, “what we have seen is not only disproportionate, but a clear violation of civil and human rights”. Again, a strong whiff of lawfare is perceived. Indeed lawfare—the use of justice for political purposes—has been recurrent in the criticism of the judicial treatment of the Catalan Process. From the convictions of political leaders for 1-O to the accusations against local officials and demonstrators, the perception of a political bias in Spain’s judicial decisions has been reinforced by cases like Boye’s. According to Kaleck, “punishing lawyers for their work is a practice associated with authoritarian regimes, not consolidated democracies”. But the trial against Gonzalo Boye is much more than a legal issue: it is a reflection of the clear politicization of the Spanish judicial system in the context of the Catalan conflict.
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