<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, agreed this Thursday to create a working team to investigate violations of international human rights law in Gaza in order to cooperate in the proceedings opened by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).</strong></h4> According to the Prosecutor's Office in a press release, the team will be composed of the Chief Prosecutor of the National Court, Jesús Alonso, and the Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory, Dolores Delgado, who will act as co-investigators in the proceedings that will be processed by the Prosecutor's Office of the National Court, with the collaboration of the Prosecutor for International Cooperation. "This aims to combine operational capacity with specialization in human rights matters," he stated. The Attorney General has made this decision following a request from Dolores Delgado (former Minister of Justice and former Attorney General of the State), after analyzing a report that the General Information Commissioner of the National Police sent in June to the Unit she directs. The report includes facts that could constitute crimes against the international community committed by the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip. "The facts described are considered serious violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, constituting crimes provided for in Articles 607 (genocide) et seq. of the Penal Code," writes the Attorney General. The Decree issued by García Ortiz recalls the existence of two proceedings before international courts, one before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and another before the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), with which our country is obliged to cooperate, in accordance with the laws and treaties signed by Spain. Therefore, the investigative proceedings will aim to gather and preserve sources of evidence "to make them available to the competent body, thereby complying with Spain's obligations regarding international cooperation and human rights," the press release continues. This initiative by the Spanish Prosecutor's Office coincides with the recommendation contained in the report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which urges the States Parties to cooperate with the investigation by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has expressed his support for the Prosecutor's Office's decision. "Anything that involves taking action and ensuring that the national and international legal system prevails over barbarism, you can understand that it seems to me the most reasonable and, I would say, necessary," he told the press after presiding over the handover of the Civil Guard ocean-going vessel "Duque de Ahumada." For her part, the PP spokesperson in the Senate, Alicia García, has accused the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, of “seeking shields to protect himself.” This is not the first case related to the Middle East to reach the Spanish courts. María Tardón, the judge of Central Investigative Court Number 3, has opened an investigation into the disappearance of two Spaniards—Maya Villalobo and Iván Illarramendi—in the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. This case has been joined by another complaint against the Hamas leadership for crimes of terrorism and crimes against humanity in relation to the deaths of the two Spaniards. The case remains at a standstill due to the difficulty of conducting an investigation during the ongoing armed conflict, as well as the lack of cooperation, according to legal sources cited by the Europa Press news agency. Separately, on July 3, Spanish activist Sergio Toribio filed another complaint in the National Court for war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several military officials in connection with the Israeli Army's assault on the Freedom Flotilla as it attempted to reach Gaza. The Prosecutor's Office ruled against the complaint this Thursday.
