Nearly eight out of ten defendants accused of skippering a boat in the Canary Islands were convicted after reaching an agreement between their defenses and the Public Prosecutor's Office and without the need to analyze the evidence against them. Only the remaining 20%, 32 of the cases analyzed, decided not to comply and obtained in most cases an acquittal after practicing the test.
When a defendant accused of skippering a boat in the Canary Islands enters pre-trial detention, 72 hours after his arrest he is excluded from humanitarian aid programs for people arriving by sea. Even when the defendant is acquitted, he can no longer return to these resources and is left in a situation of begging.
Thus, FGE Circular 5/2011, in its article 318, states that persons accused of skippering a cayuco or boat may reduce their sentence from two to four years when they themselves have sought to achieve their own migration with the trip. However, according to the analysis of the judgments disseminated by the lawyer Daniel Arencibia, in the Canary Islands only the judgments given in conformity include this article.
"When the defendant in the Canary Islands does not accept the proposal and demands to move to the test phase, the Prosecutor's Office asks for at least six to eight years in prison. This situation does not occur in other provinces, where the Public Prosecutor's Office "only asks for more than four years when there is evidence of enrichment of the skipper, drug trafficking or personal injury".
In this line, the two Canary provinces are the only ones with defendants of Malian nationality. In Arencibia's analysis, it is emphasized that the Geneva Convention is not contemplated, nor is it done with "the status or the need" of the accused. "This does not happen in the judgments of the other provinces analyzed," he stresses.
Cancellation of sentences
In addition to serving prison sentences, it is more difficult to get rid of criminal records in the Canary Islands. In the Canary Islands, for its cancellation you have to wait from three to five years when the penalties exceed three.
"This means that convicted skippers in the Canary Islands are two years more at the mercy of begging or charity, creating an obstacle for them to continue towards their final migratory destination," reflects the lawyer in the analysis of 400 accusations made by the Prosecutor's Office in more than 200 judgments of the provinces most affected by maritime migratory phenomena.
In this analysis, in the provinces of the Peninsula, the skippers serve one year of effective sentence, which is suspended at the hearing and three years of criminal record. Meanwhile, in the Canary Islands the sentences are extended to three years, with five years of criminal record.
This causes that in the Canary Islands are extended "two more years of maintenance in prison and another five of charity", until they achieve their own means to continue their project outside the islands. Arencibia points out that the action of the Prosecutor's Office in the Canary Islands pushes the accused to stay longer in the islands.
