They request the interim president to include the proposal on the agenda for next Thursday
MADRID, 18 (.)
Eight members of the conservative wing of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) have requested that the plenary session of the governing body of judges claim to be heard in the reform that repeals the crime of sedition proposed by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, since the formula used by both formations to modify the Penal Code allows avoiding the report of the CGPJ itself.
In a letter, to which Europa Press has had access, the members have asked the interim president of the CGPJ, Rafael Mozo, to include a point to address this request on the agenda for next Thursday the 24th.
The members want the Plenary of the body to rule on the lack of request for a report in relation to the “Proposal for an Organic Law for the transposition of European directives and other provisions for the adaptation of criminal legislation to the European Union law, and reform of crimes against moral integrity, public disorder and dual-use weapons smuggling”.
The eight signatories have asked that this point be evaluated so that it can be debated whether, despite this, it would not be appropriate for “the Plenary to evacuate said report.” In line, they have recalled that European standards require that all regulatory proposals that affect the Judiciary must be submitted to a prior report from the Councils of Justice.
These members have stressed that “it is striking to them that on repeated occasions” they come across “important reforms that affect the Judiciary and that, instead of being processed as bills by the Government, it is the parliamentary groups that support the Government that they present in the Congress of Deputies as bills, thus obviating the processing of the mandatory report of this General Council of the Judiciary if it had been processed in another way”.
The eight have also pointed out that “precedents already exist” in the CGPJ for issuing reports on bills.
THE PSOE AND UP PROPOSAL
The PSOE and Unidas Podemos have proposed repealing the current crime of sedition and replacing it with another aggravated public disorder that contemplates penalties of 3 to 5 years in prison -compared to 10 to 15 years in the current Penal Code- and disqualification of 6 to 8 years –compared to the 10 to 15 years established by the current law–, according to the organic law proposal to which Europa Press had access.
The text proposes this reduction after repealing article 544 of the Penal Code -which defines the crime of sedition- and modifying article 557 to create what yesterday the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, called “aggravated public disorder”.
Thus, the proposition states that “those who, acting in a group and in order to threaten public peace, carry out acts of violence or intimidation: against people or things, will be punished with a prison sentence of six months to three years ; or obstructing public roads causing a danger to the life or health of people; or invading facilities or buildings”.
And it adds that “the acts described in the previous section will be punished with a prison sentence of three to five years and special disqualification from employment or public office for the same time when they are committed by a crowd whose number, organization and purpose are suitable for seriously affect public order.
“If the authors are found to be in authority, the penalty of disqualification will be absolute for a period of six to eight years,” the proposal specifies.
Among the main modifications, an “aggravated modality of public disorder” is introduced. To this end, the text proposes that “the crime of public disorder be committed by a crowd whose characteristics –number, organization and purpose– are suitable for seriously affecting public order, understood as the normal functioning of public institutions and services” .
“It is configured, thus, as a type of danger that, although it does not require that public order be effectively affected or prevented, it does require that the elements have been arranged in an adequate way to have endangered it,” says the proposition. .
