VALENCIA’S highest court has rejected a call for ex-president Carlos Mazon to be tried for negligence over his handling of the October 2024 flood disaster that killed 230 people.
The five judges on the Supreme Court(TSJ) on Monday unanimously rejected a recommendation by an investigating judge that Mazon should be prosecuted.
The TSJ stated there were no ‘solid or objective grounds’ to charge Mazon who has immunity as a deputy in the regional parliament- Les Corts.
VALENCIA SUPREME COURT BUILDING
The TSJ said the law did not provide any specific roles to a president in an emergency situation and therefore- based on the evidence so far- he was not criminally liable.
They added their job was not to analyse Mazon’s behaviour from a ‘political or moral’ perspective but only from a legal standpoint.
Mazon resigned last November after a year of intense scrutiny over his whereabouts on the fateful day.
He spent several hours having an extended lunch with a journalist on October 29, 2024 while his administration delayed sending mobile emergency alerts to warn residents.
ANTI-MAZON PROTEST, VALENCIA, LAST OCTOBER
Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, who is investigating the regional government’s response, said there was evidence that Mazon showed ‘total negligence in the coordination and management’ of the floods.
She sent a report to the TSJ on February 24, stating that Mazon’s decision to ‘retreat to a private dining room when faced with an extremely serious situation’ was ‘a decisive factor in the deadly human toll’.
Ruiz Tobarra added there was a ‘causal link’ with the deaths of people due to a lack of an emergency alert warning.
Families of flood victims have repeatedly blamed Mazon for the scale of the death toll and have held monthly protests calling for his prosecution.
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