Judge banned after ETA blunder

8 September 2004

MADRID – A judge who made a “grave” mistake which allowed an ETA suspect to go free was suspended for a year, the disciplinary commission of the General Judiciary Council said Wednesday.

Guillermo Ruiz Polanco, a high court judge, will not be able to sit as a judge for 12 months and his career is effectively in ruins.

The General Judicial Council, Spain’s most authoritative legal body, accepted the recommendation Wednesday from its disciplinary commission.

Ruiz Polanco has been suspended since last March for six months.

He delayed delivering summaries in the case of a suspected ETA terrorist and which led to the release of the suspect.

The judge was accused of two serious errors resulting from the freeing of ETA suspect Ibai Ayensa.

There was a deadline by which the case should have been dealt with, but instead of delivering judgement, Ruiz Polanco went to visit another judge.

This effectively allowed Ayensa to walk free. 

The decision from the Council means the judge will lose his job in Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, or high court.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news