The plenary session of the Constitutional Court has decided to partially protect the former councillor and former vice-president of the Junta de Andalucía. Gaspar Zarriasin the case of the EREThe seven progressive magistrates have agreed to send their case back to the Court of Seville so that the judges can review their nine-year disqualification sentence for fraud, recognizing that their right to criminal legality has been violated. A decision similar to that of other high-ranking Andalusian officials accused of fraud. former president Manuel Chaves or former minister Magdalena Álvarez.
This week, the Court of Guarantee is examining the last pending appeals of former socialist leaders of the Junta de Andalucía against the convictions of the ERE. A few minutes later, the plenary also announced an identical protection for Antonio Vicente Lozano, former Director General of Budgets, also sentenced to nine years of disqualification.
The judgment understands that their right to criminal legality has been violated, as happened in the case of the majority of those convicted of fraud: that it was not foreseeable that acts such as preparing and approving provisional budget projects would be considered a crime of prevarication would be a legislative activity.
The result with regard to Zarrías and Lozano is the same: their nine-year disqualification sentence is annulled and their case is sent back to the Provincial Court of Seville. It will be the Andalusian court that will decide whether to maintain some form of conviction against them, but to remove from the list of charges a large number of the acts attributed to them, such as the approval of budget projects.
This is a protection similar to that received yesterday by former President Manuel Chaves, also sentenced to nine years of disqualification for fraud. The other former President of the Council who was tried and sentenced in this case, José Antonio Griñán, also saw his six-year prison sentence for embezzlement of public funds quashed in plenary yesterday.
All the rulings in the case that upheld the appeals in whole or in part were voted against by the four conservative judges of the plenary: Enrique Arnaldo, Concepción Espejel, César Tolosa and Ricardo Enríquez.