FRANCISCO BAENA BOCANEGRA. Coín, Málaga, 1942. No famous hard-pressed not to have happened by the practice of this veteran criminal. From footballers to aristocrats, passing by politicians of all parties. Aspiring to be a dean of lawyers of Seville. This Thursday is the election.
To come to this office there are to have a certain purchasing power.Not so much. I’ve been up to a few years ago in the time office, and I have put at the disposal of anyone my efforts and knowledge, which are few. Tell us a secret confesable know these four walls.Having defended a person, take it out innocent, confirm the acquittal in the appeal, and to come, the year of that to my office and tell me that she was guilty.Uf, go!, who was that?Dies with me.Do you believe in his innocence?The important thing is not that I believe it. The lawyer has to defend the presumption of innocence, by showing that the proof of the charge are not such. I have to say also that this person, years, introduced himself, and confessed the fact, but had already prescribed.The duke of Feria, one of his customers, he fell initially 18 years in prison for corruption of minors and drug trafficking that the Supreme downgraded to 9 years.It was a terrible case. With all due respect to the courts of Justice, I think that weighed heavily in the balance to be Rafael Medina, duke of Feria. Possibly, with a different surname and in a different context not in the media, would have come out acquitted. About 20 years ago, the ‘Arny’ on prostitution of minors was a scandal.The ‘Arny’, I remember the anecdote, which some knew how to interpret in the key of humor and others do not: when it came out the indictment, said that more than a self-processing was a bus because they were 50. This case was the large balloon that was pricked. There were convictions, it is true, but also many acquittals. There was a moral condemnation with a parallel process, that many people could not be put back together. In the mind of everyone is that good judge, the good person, that was one of those who sat on the bench with a dignity that is tremendous, with the same dignity that you received absolution.In the ‘Arny’, defended the Juvenile judge of Rico Lara, the comedian Jorge Cadaval, the brother of Mary of the Mount, an aristocrat…Yes, and also a dentist, a professor, cures that were left out and did not come to the trial. I was, perhaps, the attorney that more people defended in this case. I don’t remember with joy, even though the result was very spectacular for my clients. What I remember with a lot of pain. The judgment never had to be celebrated and less of the way it was.Also defended Pedro Pacheco when he proclaimed “Justice is a joke”, is it?Justice should not be a joke, but there are times that what it seems. Unfortunately, we are living these days, a case that is questioning the credibility of the Supreme Court and we are verging on the grotesque. But Justice is not a joke; if it were, they wouldn’t be here. I believe in Justice and I fight every day for her. Young people are very critical and I wonder how I still believe in this. It is a collective struggle, a trade union leader and also individual, of each one. All we have to do Justice. See him in the courtroom during a trial is all a show. People say: Baena Bocanegra is very theatrical, yes, but of my judgments are still talking about. Some young people ask me if I have recordings of them.Those recordings today would be viral.Yes, viral, but it is that I have made genuine outrages.Tell us any.In a trial by fire, I wanted to show that, as certain witnesses were saying, it was impossible that it would have led to that fire. And do not it occurred to me another thing that set fire to some papers before the court. Is volatilizaron right away. I’ve done everything. To me the courts have been extremely tolerant because they knew that he was honest and sought the truth. I was not going to deceive the court. I have had fights with all the presidents, but with all I get on very well. I am very proud of my 51 years of respect for the courts and the thing that I to me I have observed.Against all odds and with a lot of counter-evidence, did the jury not see guilty at the trial for the double crime of Almonte. More than 30 days of trial model, with a parade of experts, and witnesses… and the jury was final: 8 to 1. I have not had a jury as strong as this one. I fought for the innocence of this man, because I am fully convinced that it is. It has handled the issue of the DNA, which appeared in a few clean towels in a crime scene that was chaotic, but it is not said that he had more than 30 tests evidence to the contrary. The ruling declared the innocence, following that made by the jury, appealed, and the TSJA said that he was innocent. We have three declarations of innocence.But a young girl and her father were murdered in their house 151 stab wounds and the murderer is loose.Yes, the killer is loose. There is an interest in that my client is the murderer, but not what it is, has already said the Justice: he is innocent. You’re wasting your time in search of the murderer! But of all this we will talk at the end. Among their clients there are twenty judges, among them Baltasar Garzón. Are 27, but I’ve never defended a judge by putting the hand. I am very proud of having defended Balthasar. I defend, I do not have that sentence. He was sentenced and are currently pending in Strasbourg.And politicians of the PSOE and the PP. The former mayor of Huelva, Pedro Rodriguez, the ex-advisor to the Board Jaime Montaner, the former delegate of the Government of andalusia, Antonio Rivas,… And many more! Across the political spectrum, up of New Strength I have defended! All political parties have passed through this office, and that is what I interpret as that it has valued my independence and trust me. What more can you ask for a lawyer? Do not tempt the policy?No, nothing. Politics for me is not a perpendicular, but parallel. I see a lot of respect, but I do not understand many things of the political animal. I’ve seen him cry in my office to politicians because they have been victims of a persecution or a criminal charge… When we were in full in the diaspora of the statement, I said: ‘when this is over, I will go against that I have been slandered’. But with the acquittal, they have not wanted to. I have only one exception: a mayor of a left-wing political party, which was the subject of a fierce persecution. After confirming the acquittal, the Supreme Court, came to my office to take the complaint, but when we were going to present it, he passed away. I still think that this man, who suffered a lot, even had this joy end. Worship to his memory, because it has been the political, more full, more lord, more consistent that treadeth in my office.Who was that?Was a mayor of Carmona, a teacher. Let’s leave it there.What would you say to those who believe that you’re devil’s advocate?I have decho many times. To be devil’s advocate would not be a bad thing, I would like to defend it, why not? There would be something that we could say in favor of the devil. The bad thing is that it’s represented by red gown and, as I am a bético, I would like it to be green. I am not concerned with that I say that. More than being the lawyer of the evil, what they are saying is that you are the lawyer of the difficult, the impossible. I would like to tell me that I am a lawyer of the impossible. But I am not. The ‘Potter’, in which it intercepted a briefcase with 22 million pesetas of an alleged commission, ended with the acquittal of all the prosecuted after the appeal that you lodged with the Constitutional. That a corruption case ends in acquittal disturbing to the citizenry.There is corruption and corruption with quotation marks, and there are also judgments in advance of corruption, which then shows that they are not. The Criminal Law is not to fix everything, only the severe cases. The complaint is a lot of corruption, that it is not or that escapes from the orbits of the Criminal Law. But today it is easier to go to the court of the guard that to other instances. This is a bet that the ex-presidents of the Government of andalusia, Chaves and Griñán will leave absolved of the ‘ERE’.I am convinced, as I have said from the first day. I am well aware of the cause, since I’m not in the trial because they took mine, but I still think, objectively as a lawyer, that Chaves and Griñán have nothing to do with this topic; and not only they, but many of the people who have been sitting on the bench.Will there be any conviction in the ERE?Yes, there will be convictions in the ERE, but not those of Chaves and Griñán. There are behaviors that, from then, they will not escape the reflection of Justice.Does the Justice with the necessary means to combat corruption?Absolutely not. First, see if there is the political will to pursue the corruption. If there is one, should give you the means to Justice and to the Police for investigation, but in these times it seems that such a political will is manifested in the allocation of resources. Justice is the Cinderella. It is very easy to say that we have a bad Justice, I might as well give more media!What is the greatest injustice of which he has been a witness?The most tremendous that there is convict an innocent person. The phrase of The witches of Salem that it is preferable to acquit a hundred guilty than to convict a single innocent should be on the frontispiece of all the palaces of justice in the world. There is No cruelty greater than to condemn a incente.And you account with any.In the privacy of my office I say that you are my unfinished business. So there will also be crimes to go unpunished.I prefer it to that an innocent person may impose a sentence of 30 years. That’s awful.When he says ‘no’ to a client?When you try to impose on me a standard way of carrying out your defense. And it is not something new now that I have 51 years; I have been, am and will continue to be jealous of which is an obligation for a lawyer to: their independence. There I do not case with anyone, especially in matters as delicate as the that management. And yes, I said ‘no’ and I’ll keep saying it.This Thursday, day 22, are the elections in the College of Lawyers of Seville. It is one of the three candidates who aspire to be dean. With the work that you have in your firm, how do you decide to take this step?It took me to make up my mind. Came into the office a few young people on purpose and it took me 10 seconds to tell them not to, but finally I have accepted it. With 51 years of profession, to be dean not going to give me, nor to remove anything. I arrive at the deanery served and eaten. I do it because a law school can do a lot for the collegiate, both in the defence of the prestige of the profession, as in the formation. You can’t conceive of Justice without the presence of the lawyer. And from the college can do many things.
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