The Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has decided to initiate the procedure to bring Judge Salvador Alba to trial, considering that there is sufficient evidence that he incurred in four crimes from the exercise of his position: judicial prevarication, bribery, falsehood and disclosure of secrets.
In her order, Judge Margarita Varona orders to transform the case into an abbreviated procedure, which is the previous step to the opening of the oral trial. First, the indictment writings must be presented, and the magistrate gives ten days to the Public Prosecutor's Office and to the private and popular accusations to do so.
The case is related to Alba's performance at the head of the Court of Instruction number 8 of the capital of Gran Canaria replacing Judge Victoria Rosell, and with the conversation between Alba and businessman Miguel Ángel Ramírez, recorded by the latter. In it, the magistrate was heard guiding Ramírez's statement, who was charged in a case being investigated in that Court, to testify against Judge Rosell.
Must judge the Stravs case and the main pieces of Unión
It so happens that Judge Salvador Alba is the one who must judge the main corruption cases that are still pending trial in Lanzarote. And not only as one of the three members of the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court that will preside over those trials, but also as a rapporteur of some of those sentences. Thus, unless he is removed from his position before his criminal situation, Alba will be in charge of judging, among others, some of the main pieces of the Unión case and the central piece of the Stratvs case.
In that second case, the magistrate already had a controversial intervention a year ago, when he upheld an appeal by businessman Juan Francisco Rosa and lifted the precautionary measure of closure of the winery, which had been ordered by the investigating judge. At that time, the content of his order led the popular accusation, represented by Urban Transparency, to ask that both he and his colleagues in the Chamber be challenged in this case.
Now, the future of Alba and those and other trials that this magistrate continues to hold will depend on the General Council of the Judiciary, which so far has allowed him to continue in his position. For the moment, Judge Margarita Varona has ordered that her order be sent to the General Council of the Judiciary "for the purposes that may be appropriate", although this body could allow him to continue exercising until this order is final - since an appeal is still possible against it - or until the next and last step is taken and the oral trial is formally opened.
