Félix Bolaños once again takes his confrontation with the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) over the complaint filed against judge Juan Carlos Peinado to the governing body of judges. The Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes has filed a new administrative appeal to demand access to the complete file and maintains that the processing of his complaint lasted 427 days without a resolution.
In his letter, to which 'Europa Press' has had access, Bolaños especially directs his criticism against the members of the conservative sector of the Permanent Commission, whom he accuses of having kept the procedure paralyzed for months. The minister maintains that the delay ended up coinciding with Peinado's approaching retirement and considers that this circumstance could have become a factor of "impunity" for Peinado.
"For 427 days, a file referring to facts of little complexity remained mired in an unjustifiable delay, without the members of the conservative group of the Permanent Commission, abandoned to idleness, considering it necessary to give it the slightest urgency," Bolaños states in the appeal.
The minister contrasts that delay with the current moment and points to a change of pace in the processing. "However, when the retirement of the accused is already a close and immediate reality, the same matter becomes the object of a sudden urgency," he adds.
Bolaños speaks of a paralysis that could have favored the judge
The minister's thesis is that the prolongation of the procedure for months could have had consequences on Peinado's eventual disciplinary responsibility. Bolaños states that "for months a situation of paralysis was tolerated that objectively favored the retirement of the accused ending up becoming a factor of impunity for him."
"If that was not the intended purpose, the truth is that the chronology of events projects precisely that appearance," he adds in his letter.
Bolaños considers that this situation generates a "particularly damaging appearance" because, he argues, "it feeds a perception of harmful corporatism that harms the image of justice and that is hardly compatible with the trust that citizens should be able to place in the disciplinary control mechanisms of the Judiciary."
The appeal comes after the CGPJ rejected the minister's previous administrative appeal against the archiving of his complaint against Peinado. The Permanent Commission then held that the magistrate's actions had no disciplinary relevance and that the issue raised exceeded the body's scope of competence.
Now demands all documentation
Bolaños' new letter aims for the CGPJ to allow him access to all documentation related to his complaint. The minister maintains that until now the body has "also" "denied" him that access and demands "access to the complete file to be able to exercise the legal actions that correspond to me."
Bolaños also warns of the consequences that, in his opinion, a new refusal would have. If the CGPJ again prevents him from consulting the file, he assures that "it could only be understood as a new attempt to achieve total impunity for the accused."
The confrontation between the minister and the governing body of judges thus continues around the processing of complaints filed against Peinado. In September, Bolaños had already attributed the archiving of his complaints to the CGPJ's "conservatism" or "corporatism" and had requested reopening the proceedings.
