PSOE and PP agree on the appointments of the president of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, judges Ramón Sáez Valcárcel and Inmaculada Montalbán and professor Enrique Arnaldo
Magistrate Concepción Espejel, president of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court since 2017, will be part of the Constitutional Court after the agreement reached by the PSOE and the PP to renew a third of the members of the court of guarantees. A 62-year-old from Madrid, Espejel was one of the two judges challenged to be part of the court that judged the ‘Gürtel case’ together with his partner Enrique López. The reason given by most of her colleagues in the Chamber is that her impartiality had been compromised by her proximity to the PP, which proposed her as a member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) between 2008 and 2013.
The name of Espejel for the TC, proposed by the PP, has been joined by his colleague from the Criminal Chamber: magistrate Ramón Sáez Valcárcel, appointed by the PSOE as a nod to his coalition partner in the Government: United We Can. A 64-year-old from Madrid, he was also a member of the CGPJ between 1996 and 2001 at the proposal of Izquierda Unida and is a member of the National High Court. One of his most important recent trials has been that of the oldest of the Mossos Josep Lluis Trapero, who was acquitted.
Also a career magistrate is Inmaculada Montalbán. A 61-year-old from Granada, she was also a member of the CGPJ between 2008 and 2013 at the proposal of the PSOE, which has reappointed her to a position of constitutional relevance. She is currently part of the Superior Court of Andalusia and is a recognized jurist in the analysis of the gender perspective as a criterion for interpreting the rules. An expert in the areas of equality, gender violence and anti-discrimination law, Montalbán was also president of the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence.
Finally, at the proposal of the PP, a name that has been from the first moment in the pools: the lawyer of the General Courts Enrique Arnaldo. A 64-year-old from Madrid, he is a professor of Constitutional Law at the Rey Juan Carlos University. He was also a member of the General Council of the Judiciary from 1996 to 2001 at the proposal of the popular. In addition, he is a Civil Administrator of the State and in 2002 he founded the law firm Estudios Jurícidos y Procesales. He collaborates with the Faes foundation and has been very active against the secessionist process in Catalonia.
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