The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJ-CV) has overturned the complaint of Clean Hands against the investigating judge of the dana procedure and has filed the case. The order reproaches the pseudo-union for not providing objective elements to “justify an investigation” into Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra. The complaint was made up of mere press clippings, the resolution recalls: “These are opinion articles, which will be very respectable, but of course they cannot be superimposed on the results obtained from the investigation, nor by themselves discredit the instructor, much less affirm that given those opinions in particular it should be understood that she has committed some type of crime.”
Regarding the complaint, the order indicates that “a mere personal accusation is not enough, without data or circumstances to corroborate it, requiring the existence of well-founded indications of responsibility.”
On the other hand, Clean Hands also expanded the complaint with new press clippings, from media linked to the right, which alluded to the alleged role of the judge's husband, also a magistrate, in the investigation of the dana case. “What we really do not find objectionable, given that if, as stated, they are husband and wife and both work in the same building, we do not find a reason for him to frequently pick her up or visit her, or for them to share their rest periods,” the resolution states.
The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJ-CV, chaired by Judge Manuel Baeza, considers that the pseudo-union does not provide any evidence regarding the alleged “more active participation” of the husband, Judge Jorge Martínez Ribera.
“In any case,” the order concludes, “possible irregularities that may have occurred in any procedural act (which we are not even aware of) would have to be asserted—if applicable—in the process itself and by the legal mechanisms for this purpose; being that, for the rest and apart from that, they cannot exceed the corresponding administrative scope; that is, they do not have the criminal relevance that is intended to be attributed to them in the complaint, without that can integrate any of the criminal types referred to in it.”
The complaint from Clean Hands simply highlights “their disagreement regarding the direction that has been given to the investigation.” The pseudo-union was expelled as a popular accusation from the dana case due to the incompatibility with the exercise of the defense of one of those investigated by the lawyer José María Bueno Manzanares, who had defined himself in a interview in The reason as “head of legal services” of the organization led by Miguel Bernad.
The “contradictory” action of Clean Hands
Clean Hands initially appealed against the order to expel the case. However, he later abandoned his appeal. “In the present case,” recalls the TSJ-CV, “the complainant initially acted correctly by filing an appeal against said resolutions, which would have allowed a court located at a higher level to have legally reviewed that resolution.”
However, “subsequently the party withdrew from that appeal, in such a way that said resolutions became final. Therefore, the actions of the complainant are really contradictory that after having voluntarily consented to be excluded from the process, now to a certain extent going against his own actions, he does not intend to have that resolution rectified, but rather to submit to a criminal trial to the accused Magistrate.”
In any case, the order of the autonomous high court recalls that Bueno Manzanares “is precisely the one who has come to claim to be the head of his legal counsel, which would naturally distort his role as accuser.”
The resolution even states that the lawyer “could incur a crime” provided for in article 467.1 of the Penal Code (on professional disloyalty of lawyers), “since in principle there could be conflicting interests between the person making an accusation and one of those investigated.”
The opposition of the Public Ministry
The Superior Prosecutor's Office of the Valencian Community opposed the assessment of the complaint, “as none of the elements that constitute the crime of judicial prevarication were present in its actions.”
The pseudo-union led by Miguel Bernad denounced the judge on June 24. However, the autonomous high court rejected the complaint as the law required a complaint to prosecute judges and magistrates. Subsequently, Manos Cleans filed a complaint for the alleged crimes of prevarication and coercion. The written complaint, as reported by this newspaper, included press clippings denied by the Prosecutor's Office.