SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Gabriel Rodríguez-Ramos, RODRIGUEZ RAMOS ABOGADOS
and corruption in Spain is the Investigation Court of the judicial region in which the crime is com - mitted. There are 431 judicial regions with very different characteristics. Some of them have more than one investigation court (ie, there are 54 investigation courts in Madrid, and 33 in Bar - celona). In those cases, the competent court results from the application of the previously fixed organic assignment rules of cases. The central investigation courts, as part of the National High Court ( Audiencia Nacional ), are the competent authorities to investigate cases affecting to various judicial regions (national rel - evance/extension). There are six central investi - gation courts, and all six have the same compe - tencies. The one ultimately in charge of a case is determined by aleatory assignment rules to ensure independence. The Prosecutor Office is the constitutionally designed institution in change of the defence of legality. In respect of criminal investigation and prosecution, the Prosecutor Office has compe - tence to: • develop preliminary investigations (not involv - ing measures affecting fundamental rights); • initiate judicial investigations and concrete investigation measures, both to be decided by the investigation courts; and • formulate an accusation, if trial phase is reached. The Prosecutor Office is organised both based on territorial and specialisation criteria, and for the purposes of this chapter, the Anti-corruption Prosecutor Office has relevance. Since 2021, the European Prosecutor Office (EPO) has Spanish European Delegated Pros - ecutors (seven), responsible for investigating,
prosecuting and bringing to judgment criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union (Directive (EU) 2017/1371 and Article 4 Regulation (EU) 2017/1939). 7.3 Jurisdictional Reach of Enforcement Bodies The conclusions of the OLAF considering fraud are sent to the EPO, which decides the proce - dural consequences. If the EPO decides to initiate a criminal pro - cess (due to its own information, the conclu - sions of the OLAF or the information provided by any citizen, private company or public body), all its decisions with their legal consequences must have effective judicial legal protection (as covered by Union law, Article 19.2 TEU), that in Spain, during the investigation period of the process, is assured by revision of the Guaran - ties Judge (Article 8 Organic Law 9/2021, of July 1, on the application of Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, of 12 October 2017, establishing enhanced co-operation for the creation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office). The decisions of the Independent Whistle-Blow - er Protection Authority (AAI) or the offices of the autonomous community’s administration can be appealed through the administrative jurisdiction. The decisions of the criminal courts have a com - plete appeal system, to comply and fulfil the fun - damental rights of the process (especially the right to appeal in criminal matters, Article 2 Pro - tocol 7 to the ECHR). 7.4 Discretion for Mitigation and Aggravation There is no discretion for mitigation and aggra - vation in enforcing the law different to the ben -
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