The Diplomat
Jonathan Sánchez, a fisherman from La Línea de la Concepción, has been summoned to appear before a Gibraltar court on 1 December on charges of fishing in “British territorial waters”, i.e. the waters surrounding the Rock over which Spain does not recognise the UK’s sovereignty.
Jonathan Sánchez, who has been harassed on several occasions in recent months by Gibraltarian patrol boats, has appealed to the Spanish government for support, but as Europa Sur reported last Saturday, he has so far received no response whatsoever.
The Organización Productores Pesqueros Artesanales Lonja de Conil-La Línea (OPP 72) informed the Secretary General for Fisheries, Isabel Artime, on 27 October of the summons served on Jonathan Sánchez, and explained that if the fisherman attends the trial, he will be recognising the authority of Gibraltar and the United Kingdom over waters that Spain considers to be under its sovereignty; If he does not, he faces being held in contempt of court the next time he goes to work in a fishing ground that Spain places in its own waters under its jurisdiction and which the fishermen of La Línea consider to be the most important in the Bay of Algeciras.
What amazes both Jonathan Sánchez and the aforementioned fishermen’s organisation is that, just a few days before the trial takes place, they have not received any response from the Spanish Administration, not only from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, but also from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which they consider to be responsible for defending the sovereignty of the waters surrounding Gibraltar.
Jonathan Sánchez, in command of the boat Mi Daniela, has been harassed by Gibraltarian vessels for months when he goes fishing in the Punta Europa area. They tell him that he is in Gibraltar’s British territorial waters and that he has to comply with their law. He replies that he is in Spanish waters and that Spain’s is the only law he will comply with when he is there doing his job, reports the Andalusian newspaper.
The trial of Jonathan Sánchez comes at a time when negotiations between the European Commission and the United Kingdom on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit are at a standstill, although it seems that they are about to resume, which means that the situation is being watched with great interest.
The case of Jonathan Sánchez has a couple of precedents. The first, in 1999, the fourteen crew members of the fishing boat Piranha were arrested by the Gibraltarian police when they were fishing at dawn in the aforementioned waters. The case was resolved with an agreement between the then chief minister of Gibraltar, Peter Caruana, and the Algeciras fishermen’s guilds. The second, in 2013, involved the skipper of the Divina Providencia, who was summoned to court for fishing in waters close to the Isthmus, a land that is not included in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. In the end, the fisherman accepted an agreement to pay a fine of 600 pounds for only one of the charges – that of fishing with unpermitted gear – and with the precision that considerations about the waters were excluded, with the aim of removing the sovereignty conflict from the judicial process.
