A court convicted Pedro Muñoz Lorite of violating fundamental rights in the dismissal of a Muslim lawyer who worked for his firm, the same law firm that just renewed the Legal Orientation Service’s $1 million concession of Madrid City Hall
Almeida once again extends the Franco concession to the company which pays 383 euros per month for two municipal buildings
Lawyer Pedro Muñoz Lorite, a far-right activist, was found guilty of violating the fundamental rights of an employee of his firm, whom he fired amid racist insults and other comments denigrating religion Muslim. Muñoz Lorite’s office benefits from the concession of the Legal Guidance Service (SOJ) of Madrid City Hall, intended to advise disadvantaged groups whose members do not have the possibility of using the services of a lawyer.
Last April, the social court convicted Muñoz Lorite for the comments he made towards his employee Rabea MM, of Moroccan origin, born in Ceuta and of Spanish nationality. Some of the messages were written by the lawyer in the office chat room he runs and in which around fifty workers participate. The Law and Business Firm has just renewed the SOJ concession for an “estimated value” of 1,367,398.00 euros taken from public funds, according to the report from the General Directorate of Social Services.
The judgment of Social Court number 15 of Madrid declared Rabea’s dismissal void “for violation of the fundamental right to equality and effective judicial protection in its compensation aspect” and ordered Law and Business Enterprises Worldwide (LaBE) to to compensate for moral damage. caused with 20,000 euros. On July 12, the sentence became final when the judge confirmed in an order that neither party had filed an appeal within the time limit.
In one of the messages, dated June 7, 2023, Pedro Muñoz Lorite spoke to Rabea, via chat, to explain to her that he does not contact her by phone because he had to go out to Tel Aviv to enjoy a pop festival “of all sexual tendencies”. that exist and will exist, in order to have the refuge and freedom of the only democracy that exists in the Middle East, surrounded by the religion invented by Satan, called Islam.
“I don’t care if you work with me or for an ayatollah from Paseo de La Castellana, as long as you do your job when you go home you can pray to Satan or Buddha, honestly I don’t care about “Anyone who respects (sic) obedience in an internal forum, I only consider it a small mental illness that will end the day you die (…),” he continues.
The complainant is a lawyer and worked in the Legal Guidance Service of Madrid City Hall, on behalf of the LAbE, serving the migrant population. In May 2023, she was assigned to the Velilla Gender Violence Referral Point in San Antonio and last summer the company sent Rabea to provide services in Valdemoro, another city in the Community of Madrid where, as in Velilla, the office has the price for legal advice. When Rabea expressed disagreement with the transfer, the company fired her.
As indicated in the judgment last April, Pedro Muñoz Lorite wrote an email to Rabea on August 23 with the following content: “It’s the same thing to be a shitty Moor, a bastard, a dog, a thief , a thief who wants to collect even if their fucking professional responsibility is the same in my company as saving the day for my company with a specific town hall (…)”.
Muñoz Lorite has represented Clean Hands in the past in several trials against left-wing politicians, such as Manuela Carmena, Pablo Iglesias, Iñigo Errejón and Juan Carlos Monedero, and has a YouTube channel where he uploads ideological content, such as an interview fictional with the deceased dictator Francisco Franco.
The office: “These are manipulated messages”
Authorized sources from the LaBE office assure that there is an appeal before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid against the final decision of the Social Court number 15 of the capital, but that this avenue is paralyzed pending the conclusion of another which was opened. by criminal means and who is subject to summary secrecy.
According to Muñoz Lorite’s office spokesperson, the messages included in the lawsuit against Rabea’s dismissal were “stolen” and “manipulated” and a court has already accepted a complaint for these facts.
In 2019, Law and Business Enterprises Worldwide SL (LaBE) obtained the first external concession of the Legal Orientation Service. The decision to create the SOJ and replace the task carried out by public defenders was adopted by the municipal government of Manuela Carmena two days before the 2019 elections, elections that preceded a political change within Madrid City Hall. With José Luis Almeida already mayor, the SOJ award went to Lorite’s office.
The Legal Guidance Service of Madrid City Hall is a free service which advises people without resources or in vulnerable situations. Previously, this work was done by public defenders. After outsourcing, LaBE and Accem, a non-profit entity with experience with people at risk of social exclusion, competed for the concession.
As the Ser channel published at the time, Accem obtained the highest score in two of the three sections, relating to staff training, work methodology and knowledge of social services. The lower economic offer from Muñoz Lorite’s office tilted the offer in his favor. Legal sources assure that Muñoz Lorite can bid at a lower price because of the low salaries he pays to his SOJ lawyers, young lawyers with little or no experience.
It turns out that this summer, with the new SOJ tender process, it was a company other than Muñoz Lorite that submitted a cheaper offer. However, the municipal council’s markets committee excluded it from the competition due to an “abnormally low offer”.
In this sense, the City Council resorted to the jurisprudence of the National Court after the first concession to Lorite to expel Novit Legal from the process, according to the document signed by the head of the Department of Coordination and Programming of Primary Social Care of the Consistory María del Pilar Benito Pecharroman. Sources from the Town Hall explain that the attribution to the LaBE has already taken place but that it is still “in the process of being formalized” and that it will come into force in December 2024.
The employee who sued Muñoz Lorite is, according to sources close to the company, just one of a large group of professionals who were allegedly denigrated by the office owner. The 15-M Legal Assembly is preparing other files to initiate new legal actions against Muñoz Lorite. He will also file a criminal complaint accusing the lawyer of a hate crime for the messages sent to Rabea.
“My friend Adolfo”
“In old Europe, we continue to drink ham wine, but we have the soul (sic) loaded under our pillows, to face, to the death, the intolerant and the enemies of personal freedom, encouraged by a prophet who does not exist for a god who does not exist and for a religion that tries to condemn and slander people with their sexual condition, their origin, their nature or their ancestry, my friend Adolfo was wrong to establish a goal in culture and society (…), says the text of another of the messages posted on the chat and addressed to the Muslim worker by the head of the office which advises disadvantaged groups and who collects in the boxes public offices of Madrid City Hall.
LaBE also wins legal assistance contracts with citizens of five other municipalities in the Community of Madrid, four governed by the PP and one with a socialist mayor. The highest amount of these other municipalities in the community is that of Valdemoro, 138,000 euros, although the rest does not exceed 33,000 euros. He also provides legal advice to the National Foundation for Health and Children, which depends on the Ministry of Health, for which he charges 70,000 euros. All these contracts are far from that of Madrid City Hall, worth 1.3 million euros.
Asked about the new LaBE concession, a spokesperson for Madrid City Hall affirms that the law on public sector contracts establishes the cases of prohibition of contracting with public administrations and that the documentation presented by the office of Muñoz Lorite “contains negative statements on these grounds for exclusion.” .”
The City Hall headed by José Luis Martínez Almeida attributes the renewal to the ultra-lawyer firm because it was evaluated by “technical staff based on objective and subjective criteria”. “As for the subjective part, it refers to aspects included in the project presented and, in no case, to other circumstances foreign to this proposal”, adds the municipal spokesperson in reference to the condemnation of the successful bidder Muñoz Lorite.
