The judge of the National Court María Tardón has summoned several counselors of the Ceuta Executive to testify as witnesses, throughout the next week, as well as various commanders and agents of the National Police and the Civil Guard who witnessed firsthand the massive entry of immigrants from Morocco at the end of July.
According to the citation, this Tuesday Alberto Ramón Gaitán, Nabila Benzina, and Alejandro Ramírez, counselors of the Ceuta government, will appear. These officials were pointed out in their testimonial declaration by the president of the autonomous city, Juan Jesús Vivas, who indicated that "they had direct presence in the affected areas or active participation in the management of the crisis."
The magistrate has set for the previous Monday the testimony of Lorenzo Juan Fages, chief inspector of the National Police, along with the lieutenant colonel of the Civil Guard who serves as operations chief at the Ceuta Command, in order to reconstruct the security device deployed during those days.
Additionally, for this Wednesday Tardón has also summoned as witnesses three agents of the National Police who were present at the location where the massive entry of people occurred at different time slots on July 30, with the aim of clarifying how the situation evolved on the ground.
An organized massive entry with impact on the border
In various resolutions issued in this case, the judge maintains that the massive entry "did not have an occasional or spontaneous nature, but rather it was an organized process in which the migratory purpose operated only as a formal cover that served to promote, boost, and direct a massive flow of people to the city of Ceuta."
The instructor also rejects that "the purpose of the majority of the immigrants was to remain in Spanish territory," emphasizing that the massive entry "sought to achieve maximum impact on border management until its collapse and, having achieved the first objective, eliminate Spain's capacity to respond to contain or reverse the situation."
Office to Defense and witnesses already heard
As one of his last actions, Tardón has directed an official letter to the Ministry of Defense to inform whether it is aware of the entry into the waters of the autonomous city of warships or Moroccan military vessels between July 29, one day before the events, and August 10, in order to clarify whether there was foreign military presence in the area during that period.
So far, within the framework of this investigation, the judge has already taken statements as witnesses from the president of Ceuta, the former chief of staff of the Government Delegation, Gonzalo Sanz, and the chief of the Local Police of the autonomous city, Sebastián Vega, whose accounts have served to outline the chronology of the migration crisis and the decisions made by the authorities.