The delegated prosecutor against hate crimes and discrimination in Castellón, Juan Diego Montañés, resigned from his position due to the “high workload”, according to the Official State Gazette (BOE) published this Wednesday. Montañés, who assumed these functions in 2013, justifies his resignation by the workload he bears as delegate of the Computer Crime specialty, responsible for the Public Prosecutor’s Office Information System (SIMF) and coordinator of implementation of the judicial file in the Valencian department. Community.
The prosecutor’s decision is more than worrying, since the Valencian Community records a rate of 4.82 crimes, offenses and hate incidents per 100,000 inhabitants, slightly higher than the state average of 4.72. By province, Castelló, where the specialized prosecutor resigned, has a rate of 6.46, Valencia of 4.82 and Alicante of 4.31, according to the “Report on the evolution of hate crimes in Spain 2023” presented this Monday by the Minister of the Interior. Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
On September 10, the former hate crimes prosecutor communicated his resignation to the State Attorney General’s Office, which accepted it by decree of September 27 signed by the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. According to the resolution that provides for the dismissal, the position held by Montañés required a dedication that “makes it difficult for him to continue assuming the delegation of the specialty in hate crimes and anti-discrimination.”
In 2023, state security forces and bodies investigated a total of 251 criminal offenses and hate incidents in the Community: 95 for racism/xenophobia; 69 by sexual or gender orientation; 26 for discrimination based on sex or gender; 19 by ideology; 8 due to religious beliefs or practices; 7 due to disability; 6 for anti-Semitism; 3 for aporophobia; 2 for anti-Gypsyism; 1 for disease discrimination.
