Judge Francisco Martel, president of the Fourth Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, has referred today, in full view, to the delays suffered by the appointment of trials in the specialized court. “We are even ashamed,” said Martel when he was forced to suspend a trial, due to the illness of a lawyer, against Commissioner José Manuel Villarejo and businessman Javier López Madrid, and considering that this postponement will mean that it will not be held. probably until the second half of 2026.
“Evil for many, consolation for fools,” the judge continued, assuring that other sections of the Criminal Court are in a similar situation, with procedures stuck due to lack of dates. The National Court is one more judicial body that suffers immense delays that are still dragging on from the crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic or the strike of judicial secretaries last year. These issues add to the traditional slow functioning of justice.
This Monday the trial should have begun for one of the dozens of pieces being investigated against Commissioner Villarejo in the case called Tándem. On this occasion, the retired police officer, his partner Rafael Redondo and the businessman Javier López Madrid sit on the bench. The latter is accused of having hired the police officer to harass Dr. Elisa Pinto.
The victim’s lawyer presented a sick leave on Friday but crossed out information that she considered confidential about her ailments. Consequently, the court issued an order ruling out the postponement. This morning the lawyer presented a second unblemished and updated medical report and, once in the courtroom, the court has decided to postpone the trial.
The defenses of Villarejo and Redondo have not opposed, but Javier López Madrid’s lawyer has been against the suspension because he considered that there was insufficient motivation. It so happens that another trial with the same protagonists in the Provincial Court of Madrid was recently suspended, with the businessman’s lawyer alleging a state of anxiety, which did not entail sick leave, and which would force him to reduce his workload. according to medical prescription.
Hiring Villarejo
In that trial that was suspended in the Provincial Court, the alleged harassment itself and the aggression that Pinto would have suffered by Villarejo were going to be judged. The investigation of the case has been delayed for more than a decade. The date that was set was October 2025, but the commissioner’s lawyer has scheduled another hearing on those dates, so, if it is not delayed again, the trial will be held in February 2026.
In the case of the trial suspended this Monday in the National Court, only the hiring of an active public official (Villarejo) by a private individual (López Madrid) was going to be judged without the consequences of the alleged harassment being assessed. and assault suffered by Dr. Pinto. With the suspension it is likely that the original order will be returned, and that the trial with the most burden, that of the Provincial Court, will be held before that of the National Court.
Pinto’s lawyer has appeared in the courtroom despite his withdrawal, alleging that the court rejected the postponement. In her intervention she reported tremors and discomfort and, behind a pair of sunglasses, she added that she seeks the suspension of the entire procedure, not just the suspension of her vision. “For now we resolve what we have on the table, if they are other approaches or other stories, they already sound like delays and strange things,” the president of the court responded.
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