The Balearic Court does not believe that they can be charged with the new crime of public disorder and only accuses them of coercion
The Government’s decision to make the crime of sedition disappear from the Criminal Code to please its ERC partners has had the first and unexpected collateral consequence. The Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands decreed the immediate release of the 22 immigrants who forced the landing of a plane on the Casablanca-Istanbul route on November 5 after faking a false medical emergency in order to gain access to Spanish territory.
The Balearic judges have followed the express request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the only accusing party in this proceeding and which, until now, claimed a sentence of five years in prison for sedition for each of the mutineers.
The Public Prosecutor does not believe that what happened in that Air Arabia Marroc ‘patera plane’ can be classified as a crime of aggravated public disorder (the crime that sedition is now replaced in the Penal Code), it has decided to classify the facts as an offense of coercion. This crime is only punishable by imprisonment of 6 months to 3 years or a fine of 12 to 24 months, so the preventive detention of the defendants would no longer fit.
several precautionary
The court order orders the Palma prison to automatically release the 21 immigrants who were captured on the island. Of course, there are several precautionary measures: they will have to appear in court every Monday, passport withdrawal and prohibition from leaving Mallorca until the trial. The last of the defendants, who was already arrested in Barcelona, is prohibited from leaving the national territory. After leaving jail this Tuesday afternoon, the North Africans were detained again for a few hours to initiate an administrative file for their expulsion from the country, which would be effective once the criminal case is over.
Those arrested, according to the original indictment, forced the landing in Son Sant Joan with a false alarm due to a diabetic coma of one of the defendants. They then plowed the crew and ground crew out of the aircraft and scattered across the runways.
initial accusation
The consequences of what happened, always according to the original indictment for sedition, were extremely serious. For the Public Ministry, these passengers, in a planned way, caused an “unprecedented situation in European airspace.”
The diversion of this flight between Morocco and Turkey for the illegal entry of part of its passengers into Spain endangered air safety, caused the diversion and delay of some 60 flights and forced the closure of this Palma airport facility for almost four hours. . This situation, both the Prosecutor’s Office and the Palma judges believe, does not match the crime of aggravated public disorder that proposes as an alternative the reform of the Government
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