Major blow from the Supreme Court to the former Minister of Justice and former Attorney General of the State, Dolores Delgado, and her successor, Alvaro Garcia Ortizcurrent highest representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court this Tuesday annulled Delgado’s promotion to Chamber prosecutor. The Supreme Court partially upholds the prosecutor’s appeal Luis Ruedawho challenged the royal decree appointing Delgado as prosecutor of Military Room. The Supreme Court appreciates a misuse of power in the appointment and orders the proceedings to be reversed.
The Chamber maintains that the misuse of power occurs in “the exercise of administrative powers for purposes other than those established by the legal system.”
The ruling considers it proven that “the purpose sought by the Attorney General of the State was to ensure that Dolores Delgado García was promoted to the highest category of the Fiscal Career, trying to fill what, in the opinion of the proponent, is a deficiency in the legislation.” in force. This deviates from the proper purpose of the power to resolve calls for positions in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, whose vacancies must be filled fundamentally according to the criterion of merit.”
The resolution, agreed unanimously by the Chamber, emphasizes that “the misuse of power is visible and undeniable in the present case.” “The declared purpose of the Attorney General of the State was to repair what he considered to be a gap in the law: that whoever without having the highest category in the Fiscal Career is appointed Attorney General of the State is not automatically promoted, upon ceasing to hold office, to the category of Chamber Prosecutor. And achieving this objective was, in her own words, a priority. Furthermore, the entire sequence cannot be underestimated: initiative to call for the position by the co-defendant herself when she was still Attorney General of the State, resignation shortly after said position for health reasons, announcement of the position and presentation of application by Mrs. Delgado García, proposed in her favor by whoever was her close collaborator and at that time already her successor; and all of this, in case it were little, quickly and practically without a solution of continuity”.