Benign justice

The procedural pressure exerted by the main parties involved in the Gürtel case and by the Popular Party on the examining magistrate, Antonio Pedreira, seems to have made a dent in the judge's spirits, since he has agreed to release the head of the corrupt ring, Francisco Correa, on a 15-million-euro bail.

The parties in question have insisted on demanding his release from prison (Correa made this request up to five times), which he has a right to, and at the same time they have relentlessly criticized the judge and questioned his impartiality.

Preventive custody is an exceptional measure that must be discarded once the circumstances that justified it have disappeared. Even Correa, who is charged with serious crimes of political corruption and tax fraud, has the right not to remain in preventive custody — before being tried and possibly convicted — any longer than is strictly required by the judicial investigation. This guarantee is extended to all citizens without distinction.

The curious thing is that, according to Judge Pedreira himself, the circumstances that justified Correa's preventive custody in the first place have not changed. Nevertheless, he is willing to replace it with a considerable bail to avoid "creating an appearance of lack of impartiality in a democratic society." After two years and three months spent in jail, Correa is benefiting from an act of judicial generosity based on the most favorable interpretation of the law for the prisoner. Nothing to object to there, except that this kind of behavior is, alas, not the most common one among other judges in similar circumstances.

Correa continues to be a dangerous defendant, with the means and the contacts to abscond from justice, and that is why the judge has established a bail that is meant as a deterrent and proportional to "the vast amount of money" at his disposal. And in order to close off all of Correa's chances of evading justice, he is being ordered to appear in court Mondays and Fridays, has had his passport seized, and is forbidden from stepping outside Spain.

Thank goodness Pedreira based his decision on very different motives than those wielded by Correa's defense, chiefly that the nullity of the wiretaps ordered by Judge Baltasar Garzón while Correa was in jail distorts the entire legal procedure. Pedreira has rejected this defensive strategy, which seeks to create confusion and will doubtless resurface during the trial.