Eligio Hernández (El Pinar, island of El Hierro, 1947) was a member of the PSOE when he was elected Attorney General of the State by Felipe Gonzalez in 1992 and remains so today. Retired to his winter quarters from books, letters and Canarian intellectuals, he still has the courage to step into the mud and make amends with the government in his clashes with the judicial system.
In this case, it is not any action of the Executive, but rather the decision of the Supreme Court (TS) to investigate the Attorney General, Álvaro Garcia Ortizfor revealing confidential data of the businessman Alberto Gonzalez Amadorpartner of the Madrid president, Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
This is the first time in democracy that the head of the prosecution will be the subject of a judicial investigation and Eligio Hernández is able to react.
“In my opinion, the only avenue available to the State Attorney General is resign. Not only for the damage it causes to the judicial career, but also for not causing additional damage to the image of justice“, he says on the phone with EL ESPAÑOL.
The former prosecutor, García Ortiz’s predecessor in office between 1992 and 1994, claims to have carefully read the order of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court and to have seen “few judicial resolutions with so much content”. legal rigor, so that there is no doubt that there are indications to investigate.
The complaints investigated concerned the publication of a memo released to the media by the state attorney general’s office. It was specified that it was not the prosecutor, but Ayuso’s partner who was seeking an agreement with the courts, in exchange for the recognition of two tax offenses for which he was under investigation.
Today, the Criminal Chamber of the TS downplays the importance of this information note. But he sees signs that we need to continue investigating two emails leaked between the prosecutor and Alberto González’s lawyer during which an agreement with the courts was being negotiated. Therefore, García Ortiz faces a case for the alleged crime of revelation of secrets.
According to Eligio Hernández, the Supreme Court’s order goes beyond the complaints presented by the Foro Libertad y Alternativa Foundation and the Manos Médicas organization, accustomed to presenting complaints against the government which, in many cases, end up being archived.
For this reason, adds Hernández, ignoring the reasoning of the TS would be understood as a “review of his second bedroom [de lo Penal]which does not correspond to the prosecutor at the moment.
García Ortiz, however, indicated that remaining in office “is the least expensive and most prudent for the institution in the medium and long term.” A decision for which she benefits from the “full support” of the Government.
The one who served as Attorney General of the State with Felipe González considers that “every minute it takes to resign “It harms justice in general.”
Lack of impartiality
Before becoming a prosecutor, Eligio Hernández was a delegate of the Canary Islands government and a member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) appointed by the Senate. After leaving the public prosecutor’s office, he returned to politics and was elected deputy of the Parliament of the Canary Islands for the PSOE.
His relationship with political power has never been in doubt. So much so that the Supreme Court declared illegal his appointment as attorney general of the state — after leaving that position — for not having served as a jurist for the sufficient time that a position like this requires. Even if he always insisted that his relations with the Executive were not tainted.
“I have been saying it for over 30 years and I continue to say it: Felipe González had a scrupulous respect. “He never gave me any instructions, either orally or in writing, and did not convey to me any wishes that would violate the principle of impartiality of the prosecution.”
Something García Ortiz doesn’t believe will happen. “There are now reasons to believe that the appearance of ethical impartiality was rapedbecause the State Attorney General has adopted well-known positions or opinions against the panel of prosecutors.”
Hernández is referring to clashes such as those that García Ortiz, a supporter of amnesty for all crimes, pitted against the country’s pro-independence leaders. process- He maintained a group of prosecutors who refused to follow his orders, leaving aside crimes such as embezzlement.
García Ortiz was also against the Supreme Court investigation terrorism the cause of the democratic tsunami, ignoring fiscal leadership. Although the case was eventually filed with the TS after the National Court did the same due to an error in the dates for further investigation.
Eligio Hernández believes that “political control of the public prosecutor’s office is currently not possible, because the courts will listen to the prosecution.” But he proposes that his appointment does not depend on the Government, but rather that it be “independentlike the judges.”
“We would avoid a lot of problems,” he warns, “by eliminating this suspicion of lack of impartiality,” which, according to him, now weighs on Álvaro García Ortiz.
