The Most Excellent
Fernando Grande-Marlaska
MP
Official portrait, 2023
Minister of the Interior
Assumed office
7 June 2018
MonarchFelipe VI
Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez
Preceded byJuan Ignacio Zoido
Member of the General Council of the Judiciary
In office
4 December 2013 – 7 June 2018
PresidentCarlos Lesmes Serrano
Chair of the Criminal Chamber of the Audiencia Nacional
In office
16 April 2013 – 6 June 2018
Preceded byJavier Gómez Bermúdez
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office
17 August 2023 – 1 December 2023
ConstituencyCádiz
In office
21 May 2019 – 21 February 2020
ConstituencyCádiz
Personal details
Born
Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez

(1962-07-26) 26 July 1962
Bilbao, Spain
Spouse
Gorka Gómez
​
(m. 2005)​
Alma materUniversity of Deusto

Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez (Spanish pronunciation: [feɾˈnando ˈɣɾande maɾˈlaska]; born 26 July 1962) is a Spanish judge and politician who has served as minister of the Interior since June 2018. An independent politician close to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, he has been Member of the Congress of Deputies from 2019 to 2020, and during 2023, representing Cádiz.

Grande-Marlaska is a well-known judge since the early 2000s for his time at the Audiencia Nacional, where he tried several members of the Basque terrorist group ETA and he led the trial that followed the Yak-42 accident, among other relevant cases. He also served as Member of the General Council of the Judiciary —the governing body of the Spanish judiciary— from 2013 to 2018.

Biography

Early life and career

Born in Bilbao, he is the son of Avelino Grande, an officer of the Bilbao Municipal Police.[1] He entered the judicial career in 1987 and served in the Court of First Instance and Inquiry in Santoña, Cantabria, from where he was the investigating magistrate in the case against Rafael Escobedo for the Assassination of the Marquesses of Urquijo. In 1990, he moved to Bilbao's Court of Inquiry No. 2, where he remained for nine years. At that time, he promoted the presiding judge of the Sixth Section of the Criminal Division of the Provincial Court of Biscay.

In 2003, he moved to Madrid as investigating judge of the district of the 36th Court of Inquiry.[2]

In 2004, he was appointed to the Audiencia Nacional as a substitute judge for Judge Baltasar Garzón in the Central Court of Inquiry No. 5, where he made his name at the national level, and was already known as an instructor in Bilbao.

Magistrate of the Audiencia Nacional

Until 30 June 2006, he was a member of the Central Examining Court number 5 of the Audiencia Nacional, temporarily replacing its head, Judge Baltasar Garzón. When Garzón returned to his post on 1 July 2006, Grande-Marlaska was assigned to the Criminal Division of the Audiencia Nacional.[2] He ran as an independent candidate for the General Council of the Judiciary (2006), but was not elected.[3][4]

In 2007, he took over from Teresa Palacios the Central Examining Court No. 3 of the Audiencia Nacional.[5]

At that time, he took up the most important case: the Yak-42 accident in Turkey, which killed 62 soldiers on their return from Afghanistan on 26 May 2003. However, four months after arriving at the courthouse, on 1 June 2007, he shelved the case and attributed the responsibility to the Ukrainian crew, clearing the Ministry of Defense of the accident for hiring an unsafe plane. He also found unnecessary the identification of 30 corpses.[6]

However, on 22 January 2008, the Fourth Section of the Criminal Division unanimously revoked the decision to shelve the case, alleging that the judge had not exercised any diligence and had failed to defend the victims constitutional right to due process. Once the case was reopened, he called as witnesses the military leadership of the time, as well as former ministers Federico Trillo and José Bono, but exonerated high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense of guilt despite their having been reported on the poor state of the aircraft.[6] Finally, on 20 May 2008, he charged five high-ranking military commanders, including the Chief of the Defence Staff, Antonio Moreno, the highest military officer at the time of the accident, with 62 counts of serious negligence.

On 30 August 2007, he ordered the opening of an oral trial for insulting the Crown to several graphic artists. In June 2007, it was decided to close the case against four directors of Air Madrid for alleged fraud committed during the crisis that affected the airline in December 2006 and, in September 2007, rejected the appeals filed by the General Association of Consumers and Users and the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) against the car's filing.

On 23 February 2012, he was appointed President of the Criminal Chamber of the Audiencia Nacional, replacing Javier Gómez Bermúdez.[7]

On 29 November 2013, he was appointed as a member of the General Council of the Judiciary, at the proposal of the People's Party, by the Senate.

Minister of the Interior

Minister Grande-Marlaska, along with the Deputy Directors of Operations of the State police forces, in a press conference during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Spain.

In 2018, the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, appointed Grande-Marlaska as Minister of the Interior.[8] Briefly after assuming the office, Grande-Marlaska announced his intention of removing the barbed wire on fences between Morocco and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla.[9] In January 2019, the Council of Ministers approved the "Plan for the Reinforcement and Modernization of the Terrestrial Border Protection System in Ceuta and Melilla" with a value of 32 million euros, which also included extending the height of the fences and introducing new technological elements.[10] Specifically, the sole withdrawal of the barbed wire is valued at 18 million.[11] The removal of the barbed wire and the border security measures upgrade started in December 2019.[12] On February 17, 2020, the minister announced before the Congress of Deputies' Home Affairs Committee that the fences would be raised by 30%, around 10 meters.[13]

On March 14, 2020, the Council of Ministers approved the "State of Alarm" due to the coronavirus pandemic in Spain.[14] That measure gave the central government extraordinary powers to directly control the regional and local administrations and establish some constitutional rights restrictions. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez appointed Grande-Marlaska as one of the four "delegated competent authorities" and gave him the command over all state, regional and local law enforcement agencies as well as the power to close all needed roads and borders.[15] In the use of these extraordinary powers, on March 15, 2020 the minister issued an order to all police forces to apply, in case of non-compliance by citizens with the measures established by the government, article 36.6 of the 2015 Law on Citizen Security which establishes fines of between €100 and €600,000 and, in case of severe disobedience, articles 550 to 556 of the Criminal Code, which establishes jail sentences up to 4 years.[16]

During the immigration crisis in May 2019, thousands of migrants crossed the Spanish-Moroccan border in Ceuta; Grande-Marlaska in turn announced a firm stance to "defend Spanish soil" by means of a reinforcement of 200 new Civil Guard officers sent over to the border, as well as the devolution of 2,700 people back to Morocco.[17] On the issue of unaccompanied minors who had made their way into Ceuta illegally, the minister supported in August 2019 the attempt to send them back "for their own benefit", considering that they were not vulnerable and the expulsion did not pose a threat to them.[18]

Controversies

Inaction on torture and police brutality

The European Court of Human Rights had issued by 2016 a total of eight verdicts condemning Spain for failing to investigate alleged torture and police brutality on detainees,[19] five of which happened under the custody of Grande-Marlaska.[20][21] According to lawyer Amaia Izko, who represented four of the victims "[...] we proved the judge did nothing to investigate or impede the torture and police brutality [occurring] while the detainees were held incommunicado. There are many more such cases. I have represented hundreds of people who denounced being tortured [by the police] while awaiting trial under judge Grande-Marlaska."[22]

According Izko's clients, Grande-Marlaska often ignored the detainees' claims with "an openly mocking attitude". Some of the claims also denounced rape/sexual assault and homophobic attacks. Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, militants of ETA subjected to torture by the Guardia Civil according to the 2018 ECtHR verdict,[23] were stripped naked and beaten for five days while incommunicado until Portu had to be taken to the hospital in critical condition.[24] The Council of Europe confirmed that both detainees were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.[25]

On 9 March 2021, Grande-Marlaska refused in the Congress of Deputies to declassify secret files that could reveal further incriminatory evidence pointing to the death of Mikel Zabalza as a result of torture while on Civil Guard's custody in 1985, following recordings with detailed internal accounts of Zabalza's death re-published by the daily Público;[26][27] the minister reminded instead that Spanish Justice has dismissed the case by now.[27]

On 7 March 2022, the minister dismissed accusations of police brutality following TV footage showing Civil Guard border officers battering and pepper-spraying a person jumping the security fence bordering on Morocco as he came down on the Spanish side, instead elaborating on the level of violence and injuries allegedly sustained by 60 guards during the attempts of the migrants to cross the border into Spain.[28]

Personal life

Grande-Marlaska is openly gay and has been a long time activist against gay bullying. He is married since 2005 to his longtime partner, Gorka Gómez.[29][30]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
  1. ↑ "Juez Grande Marlaska: "¿Un 'lobby' gay? Desde luego no en justicia"". XLSemanal (in European Spanish). 7 September 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Fernando Grande Marlaska: el juez vasco que procesó a Otegi dirigirá la sala de lo penal". 20 Minutos. 23 February 2012.
  3. ↑ Mundinteractivos. "Grande-Marlaska se presentará como independiente a vocal del CGPJ | elmundo.es". www.elmundo.es. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  4. ↑ "Grande-Marlaska asegura que mantiene su "ilusión" por formar parte del Consejo del Poder Judicial. La Verdad". www.laverdad.es. 26 April 2008. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  5. ↑ Jurídicas, Noticias. "El CGPJ nombra a Grande-Marlaska titular del Juzgado Central de Instrucción número 3 · Noticias Jurídicas". Noticias Jurídicas (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Los familiares del Yak 42 no perdonan a Marlaska que archivara la causa por la muerte de 62 militares". El Plural (in Spanish). 7 June 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  7. ↑ "Marlaska sustituye a Bermúdez en la Audiencia" (in Spanish). 23 February 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  8. ↑ Gobierno de Pedro Sánchez Grande-Marlaska, el juez que plantó cara a ETA, nuevo ministro de Interior in rtve.es (in Spanish)
  9. ↑ "Spain wants to remove barbed wire from border fences with Morocco". InfoMigrants. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  10. ↑ Pérez, Claudi (22 August 2019). "El Gobierno habilita 32 millones para el control migratorio marroquí". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  11. ↑ 20minutos (15 November 2019). "La retirada de las concertinas en las vallas de Ceuta y Melilla comenzará antes de fin de mes". www.20minutos.es - Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "Adiós a las Concertinas en la valla de Ceuta". EL FORO DE CEUTA (in Spanish). 3 December 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  13. ↑ "Marlaska elevará hasta 10 metros la valla de Ceuta y Melilla y retirará las concertinas". El Español (in European Spanish). 17 February 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  14. ↑ Jones, Sam (14 March 2020). "Spain orders nationwide lockdown to battle coronavirus". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  15. ↑ "Spain impose nationwide lockdown due to virus, closes all stores except groceries and pharmacies". CNBC. 14 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  16. ↑ Rendueles, Luis (15 March 2020). "Multas de 100 a 600.000 euros para quienes incumplan el estado de alarma". elperiodico (in Spanish). Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  17. ↑ Martín, María (19 May 2021). "Qué está pasando en Ceuta: claves de la crisis migratoria entre España y Marruecos". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  18. ↑ RTVE.es (17 August 2021). "Marlaska defiende la devolución de menores a Marruecos". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  19. ↑ "Ocho condenas del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos evidencian que la investigación de torturas es una asignatura pendiente de España". Amnistía Internacional (in Spanish). 25 June 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  20. ↑ Guenga, Aitor (31 May 2016). "El Tribunal de Estrasburgo condena de nuevo a España por no investigar torturas". El Diario (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  21. ↑ Tsavkko Garcia, Raphael (19 June 2018). "Not everyone is in awe of Spain's new progressive government". Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera Media Network. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  22. ↑ Torrús, Alejandro (14 February 2018). ""Hay una política de impunidad de la tortura en el Estado"". Público (in Spanish). Display Connectors, SL. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  23. ↑ "Court: Two Basque ETA terrorists suffered inhuman and degrading treatment after their arrest". Human Rights Europe. Council of Europe. 13 February 2018. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  24. ↑ "#Aztnugal A history of Torture in the Basque Country". Basque Peace Process. 9 May 2016. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  25. ↑ "Court: Two Basque ETA terrorists suffered inhuman and degrading treatment after their arrest | HUMANERIGHTSEUROPE". 1 April 2019. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  26. ↑ "Unas grabaciones a altos mandos de la Guardia Civil demuestran que Zabalza murió tras ser torturado en Intxaurrondo". www.publico.es. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  27. 1 2 LMCN/PAU (9 March 2021). "Marlaska dice que es la autoridad judicial quien debe decidir si reabre el "desgraciado caso" de Mikel Zabalza". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  28. ↑ "Spanish minister defends police accused of brutality at Melilla border". the Guardian. 6 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  29. ↑ Fonseca, Óscar López (7 June 2018). "El juez conservador que destapó el chivatazo a ETA". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  30. ↑ "El juez Grande-Marlaska habla en El País del matrimonio gay y de su marido" (in Spanish). 11 June 2006. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
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