Luis Ayllón
The Court of Magistrates of Gibraltar yesterday issued an arrest warrant against the fisherman from La Línea de la Concepción, Jonathan Sánchez, after he did not appear at the trial to which he had been summoned for an alleged violation of the fishing laws of the British colony, in the waters that surround the Rock.
The arrest order was known hours after the Gibraltarian Justice itself, after the fisherman’s non-appearance, set a new date for the trial, specifically February 2, 2024, considering that the summons had not been delivered to the accused. by certified mail and at your address. The summons was delivered to him when he was on the boat, after being approached by the Gibraltar Police.
To add further confusion to the situation, late in the afternoon, InfoGibraltar, the Rock Government’s communications service, released a statement from the Director of Public Prosecutions, in which he reported that he had requested the Royal Gibraltar Police not to execute the arrest warrant for Jonathan Sánchez, until some doubts regarding the procedure are resolved.
The statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office begins by expressing its “concern” about “the process followed, under its direction” in the morning in obtaining the arrest warrant, with the possibility of bail, of the fisherman.
The director adds that he has ordered that “the Crown make an application for the matter to be resubmitted to the Magistrates Court to ensure, with as much notification to the accused as is possible in the circumstances, that the process followed stands up to the rigorous scrutiny applicable in all aspects of the Criminal Justice System in Gibraltar.”
And he ends by announcing that he has brought the matter to the attention of the Commissioner of Police, “to ensure that the execution of the arrest warrant is not carried out until the Court has before it all the facts and matters, including procedural matters, and determine how the matter should move forward.”
Jonathan Sánchez, skipper of the fishing boat “Mi Daniela”, which has been suffering harassment from Gibraltar vessels for months, decided not to attend the trial, following the recommendation received from the General Secretariat of Fisheries not to do so, because the waters in which he is accused of having committed a crime “are Spanish” and therefore “there are no reasons for an individual to respond to a summons from a foreign authority.”
Sovereignty over the aforementioned waters is claimed by the United Kingdom and Spain, which recalls that in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 the only waters in which British sovereignty was recognized are those of the port of Gibraltar.
The decision to postpone the execution of the fisherman’s arrest warrant comes at a time when they want to reactivate the negotiation between the United Kingdom and the European Commission on the future of the colony, after Brexit. Spain has the last word for a possible agreement, and is inclined to reach it, which is why it is interpreted, in political circles, that Gibraltar has chosen to avoid the possibility of a confrontation.
