One year and two months for a soldier who tried to sell a Ministry of Defense defibrillator for ‘Wallapop’

The magistrates have adopted this decision by dismissing the appeal presented by the brigade against the sentence of the First Territorial Military Court of Madrid for which he was convicted as the author of a crime “against military assets in the form of theft.”

The brigadier entered the Military Health School in December 2015 to work in the material section and, later, in the supply and storage section, reports Ep. Due to his functions, he “had free access” to four defibrillators that were stored in the warehouse without inventory; one of them put it up for sale on ‘Wallapop’ for 900 euros.

According to the ruling, to which Ep has had access, the Civil Guard became aware of the events while investigating the disappearance of another defibrillator from the Ministry of Defense and did tracking in the buying and selling application.

The members of the Judicial Police Unit assigned to the military jurisdiction they contacted the brigadier, who had used their name and telephone number in the announcement. The accused met with the agents in a cafeteria, put the defibrillator on the table, inserted a battery that he had in his backpack and showed them that it worked.

The agents verified that the defibrillator in question was not the one they were looking for, but it was one of the ones missing from the Health Logistics Support Unit. At that meeting, the accused offered to sell them medical supplies, batteries and other defibrillators. At that moment, the civil guards identified themselves as agents of the authority.

The brigade assured that he was going through a marital separation with “economic problems”who knew about the existence of defibrillators and “took them.” The agents seized the equipment and the accused, voluntarily, informed them that in his car he had three other defibrillators belonging to the Armed forces.

He First Territorial Military Court of Madrid He sentenced him to prison and suspension from employment. The man, dissatisfied with the resolution, raised his case before the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court. He alleged that his right to effective judicial protection and his right to the presumption of innocence had been violated.

The magistrates have rejected their arguments, considering that, in this case, “the discussion of the presumption of innocence has no place.” «When there has been evidence that has been legally obtained and evaluated rationally, that presumption of innocence disappears and there can be no question of that such right has been violated,” the court explained.