The High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) questions whether commuting a prison sentence or part of it for a foreigner to expulsion to their country, as provided for in the Penal Code under certain conditions, is "effective" for citizens of Morocco, because it assumes that they can "evade this measure by returning in a boat and giving another name upon arrival."
The Criminal Chamber of the TSJC raises this reasoning when confirming the six years in prison imposed on a Moroccan citizen residing in Lanzarote for having raped a foreign woman in the town of Puerto del Carmen in June 2022, in a sentence that involved the expulsion from Spain after four years.
In his appeal, the defense tried, first, to challenge the conviction against his client for an alleged lack of evidence and, second, argued that if the above was not accepted, as it happened, the defendant should serve the punishment in Spain and not be deported.
The TSJC denies this request because the Las Palmas Court "did nothing more than apply what the Penal Code determines for any non-EU foreign citizen," unless that measure is considered "disproportionate for already having roots in Spain."
At that point, the magistrates who sign the sentence endorse what is established in the law, but express their "doubts about whether it is effective with citizens of Morocco," alluding to the "frequent transit of boats to Spain from that country."
"The measure is not effective in practice in cases like the present one, since expulsion, as is well known, is not an effective measure because it is easily evaded by the widely used system of undocumented illegal immigration, affirming a different identity upon arrival, and even easier for a Moroccan national, as is the convict, given the equally notorious migratory flow from that origin,” argues the reporting judge, Antonio Doreste.
