The Supreme Court annuls the appointment of the top prosecutor of the Balearic Islands

The Supreme Court has annulled the appointment of Julio Cano as senior prosecutor of the Balearic Islands. The contentious judges have upheld the appeal of other candidates for the position and have ordered the Fiscal Council to repeat the process but taking into account the possible incompatibility of Cano for the position due to maintaining an emotional relationship with another prosecutor assigned to that same organization. the islands. The ruling criticizes that the Tax Inspection did not transfer these facts to the Fiscal Council and that their possible incompatibility was not debated in the votes.

Cano was appointed senior prosecutor of the Balearic Islands in July 2023taking over the position from his predecessor Bartomeu Barceló after 20 years in the position. Prosecutor since 2002 and assigned to the Balearic Islands two years later, Cano has gone through the civil and family specialties, has been a delegate of the Environment and Urban Planning and has also been an anti-drug prosecutor. He participated in relevant operations against drug trafficking on the islands, highlighting his role in the ‘Nancy case’: the operation against an organization that recruited minors to later prostitute them. One of the victims died of an overdose.

He was proposed to head the Balearic Prosecutor’s Office by the attorney general after receiving four votes from the Fiscal Council, a consultative and non-binding vote in which one of his rivals obtained one more vote. José Díaz Cappa, juvenile prosecutor, was the one who obtained the most votes and who finally appealed the appointment to the Supreme Court.

The appeal alleged that it was Cano himself who asked the Inspection for a report on the possible incompatibility that the romantic relationship he had with another member of the Public Ministry in the organization that he then aspired to preside could cause for the position. Also, to overcome this possible incompatibility, a secondment of services was processed urgently.

The Supreme Court explains that neither of the two things was analyzed by the Fiscal Council and orders the process to be repeated with all that data on the table. Regarding the possible incompatibility of Cano for the position, the judges affirm that “it is evident that the Attorney General’s Office, specifically the Tax Inspection, was aware of the emotional relationship between the candidate and a prosecutor assigned to the Superior Prosecutor’s Office to which the candidate “I chose first.” Regarding this commission of services, he understands that there is no “documentary evidence” that it was granted following the established legal procedure.