Political parties in opposition or opposed to the formations to which senior officials under investigation belong have also traditionally carried out popular accusations in defense of the interests of citizens. It has happened in recent cases such as Gürtel, Púnica, Lezo, Andalusian ERE, ‘procés’ or Kitchen and is also happening now in the Koldo case of the National Court, the investigation of former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos in the Supreme Court. In these two cases, both the Popular Party, the main opposition, and Vox, the third force in the Congress of Deputies, exercise the accusation, as well as the PSOE itself in that of Ábalos. Precisely the instructor of the case against Ábalos in The High Court, Leopoldo Puente, agreed to combine all the accusations under the umbrella of the Popular Party as it was the first to be brought to light. A decision that the representatives of the rest of the accusations consider an attack on their fundamental role in defending citizens. In a joint press conference in December, the lawyers of Hazte Oír, Iustitia Europa and ADADE considered the decision as further evidence of the intention to weaken the popular accusation and feared that it would have a “contagion effect.” Related News standard No Ábalos asks to the Supreme Court the annulment of the case against him for the alleged illegal investigation of the UCO ABC The former minister appeals the request sent to Congress to suspend his immunity The investigating magistrate prevented them from accessing to the room where the statements of those investigated in this case took place, which they see as a detriment to the investigation itself, since they could not provide the legal representative of the PP with the questions they considered relevant. A restrictive lawThe decisions of the courts in The detriment of the role of popular accusations adds to the legislator’s interest in downplaying his role. The Government of Pedro Sánchez, through a draft bill from the Ministry of Justice led by Félix Bolaños that has already passed the report phase of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), places limits on popular accusations. The wording of the new Criminal Procedure Law (Lecrim) – which has been pending reform since 2011 – prevents parties, unions and public administrations from exercising popular accusation to avoid spurious use of it. «It can constitute an ultimate corrective element against possible deviations or errors in the exercise of public action by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. However, the usefulness of popular action in this specific sense cannot overshadow the evidence that, as has been shown more than once, it sometimes becomes a means of instrumentalizing justice at the service of interests other than the common good”, it is stated in the draft standard.
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