ICAM denounces the Public Prosecutor’s Office for disclosure of secrets

Eugenio Ribón, Dean of the Bar Association of Madrid (ICAM), as agreed by its Board of Governors, has filed a complaint before the competent Court of Instruction against the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the official press release disseminated by collecting specific data of communications of a lawyer in the context of an ongoing process of conformity.

In the opinion of the ICAM, these facts “offer indicatively constitutive characters of a crime of disclosure of secrets provided for in article 417.2 CP, which punishes the breach by an authority or public official – in this case, the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office – of the duty of confidentiality and discretion imposed by the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.

The ICAM recalls in its complaint that this criminal type protects the “service that the public authorities have to provide to the community in relation to the duty to maintain strict confidentiality regarding the matters known to them by reason of their position”.

The denunciation (and not a complaint for this reason) is not directed against a particular person, but leaves the investigation of the criminal responsibilities that are denounced in the hands of the court.

In the opinion of the Dean of ICAM Eugenio Ribón, “the Madrid Bar, and even on the basis of the excellence and professionalism of the entire body of prosecutors, in the face of this very serious violation can neither remain impassive nor resign itself to it. It is our duty to act with vigor and determination. Therefore, today, the ICAM does not kneel down and initiates an unprecedented deployment of legal actions and response measures, standing as the undisputed bastion of the right of defense, acting not only on behalf of its members but of society as a whole,” he said.