<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The National Court has rejected a complaint against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the assault carried out by Israeli forces on a Freedom Flotilla vessel on June 8, due to "the lack of jurisdiction of the Spanish courts" in this case.</strong></h4> According to a press release from the Judiciary, National Court Judge Antonio Piña has dismissed and dismissed a complaint filed against Benjamin Netanyahu and several senior military officers "for the assault and boarding of the vessel 'Madleen', part of the international civilian mission, the Freedom Flotilla, bound for Gaza, which occurred on June 8." The complaint was filed on July 3 by Spanish activist Sergio Toribio, who was traveling on the vessel, and by the Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause. It was directed against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz; Vice Admiral and Commander of the Navy David Saar Salama; the senior officers of Unit Shayetet 13, which was in charge of the boarding; and former commander and current Israeli Army spokesman Daniel Hagari. These acts, according to the plaintiffs, constituted a crime against humanity (including unlawful detention and deportation) and another crime against persons and property protected in the event of armed conflict. On September 18, the Attorney General's Office ruled against this complaint, and Judge Antonio Piña relied specifically on this report opposing the admission of the complaint to consider that "the facts do not fall within the jurisdiction of the National Court due to the lack of jurisdiction of the Spanish courts pursuant to Organic Law 1/2014 on universal jurisdiction." "The content of the complaint prevents the attribution of jurisdiction to the Spanish courts, as the requirements of Article 23.4 a) and b) of the Organic Law of the Judiciary are not met. We must invoke the prosecution of these crimes at this time to the International Criminal Court, governed by the Rome Statute, ratified by Spain, which has a permanent and autonomous character," the investigating judge concluded. On June 9, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Dan Poraz, the chargé d'affaires of the Israeli Embassy in Spain, to protest the capture of Sergio Toribio while traveling aboard the "Madleen" of the Freedom Flotilla, attempting to reach the Gaza Strip. That same day, Spanish activist Sergio Toribio released a video in which he denounced that the flotilla had been intercepted at sea and that he himself had been "kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces or those of a country complicit in Israel's genocide of Palestinians." "I ask all my comrades, friends, and family to pressure the Spanish government to demand my release as soon as possible," he continued in the video, recorded just before the interception and released by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Separately, Yolanda Díaz, Second Vice President and leader of Sumar (the minority party in the coalition government), condemned the "hijacking of the ship 'Madleen,' which was transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza," and warned, via the social media platform Bluesky, that "this violation of international law demands a clear and forceful response from the EU." At the end of July, the Foreign Ministry again summoned Dan Poraz regarding the arrest of two Spaniards traveling on the humanitarian aid ship 'Handala' as it sailed toward the Gaza Strip to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid. Among those arrested in this case was Sergio Toribio, a 49-year-old mechanic living in Logroño. The other Spanish activist arrested in this case was Santiago González Vallejo.
