The candidate of the PP al constitutional Court Enrique Arnaldo provided being a lawyer of the General Courts documents and information to Balearic Public Television (iB3), who had hired him during the presidency of Jaume Matas (PP), about the processing of the Draft Law for the modification of the Intellectual Property Law in the Congress of Deputies, as recorded in the summary of the Palma Arena case, to which he has had access’El Periódico de España ‘.
Specifically, in a Email dated May 31, 2006, days before the July 7th the aforementioned regulation in the Lower House, Arnaldo sent from an account of Legal and Procedural Studies (EJP) a message to the director of the Legal Department of the Public Entity of the Balearic Islands Radio, Lara Alonso, in which he attached the Draft Law for the modification of the Intellectual Property Law: “In this regard, tell you that the amendments thereto have already been approved by the Senate, so we also send you the text for the presentation of amendments, and the text for the approval of the same”, specifies the message, which later recalls: ” However, when the final text is published in the Official Gazette of the Cortes Generales, we will send it to you “.
In a second message, it was sent to the Balearic public television worker two days later, on June 2, 2006, Arnaldo attached the text of the Bill on Intellectual Property approved by the Senate, which was “pending final approval by Congress“.
Bills paid
These steps are produced while Arnaldo is a lawyer in Congress of the Deputies and advises the television of the Balearic Islands. Specifically in the months of May and June 2006, dates on which the PP candidate to the Constitutional Court monitored the approval of the Intellectual Property Law in the Cortes Generales, the Public Entity of Balearic television paid Legal and Procedural Studies two bills of 2,434 euros each, which is 4,868 euros. In total, the advice lasted between 2005 and 2008, so the income for this law firm was very large.
Activities incompatible with being a lawyer
The Staff Statute of the Cortes Generales set in your article 62 what are the activities incompatible with the position of civil servant in active service in the Congress of the Deputies, between which there are several in which Arnaldo would have incurred through his professional office. And this despite the fact that on November 2, during his appearance in Congress, the jurist claimed to have always complied with the compatibility regime.
In principle, Arnaldo would have violated the aforementioned article in its letter e), which excludes for the lawyers of the courts the exercise of private lucrative, professional or industrial activities, provided that could compromise the impartiality or independence of the official, or prevent or impair the performance of their duties.
But perhaps Arnaldo’s incompatibility is clearer with respect to the point k) of article 62 of the Statute. The latter prohibits officials from preparing reports or opinions for public administrations.
Invoices of three opinions
According to the documentation to which he has had access’El Periódico de España ‘, Arnold charged 1,740 euros for a job for the Public Radio Television of the Balearic Islands in February 2007. The following item appears on the invoice: “Opinion on Law 17/2006, of June 5, on radio and television of state ownership and of its possible incidence in the field of the Autonomous Radio and Television Public Entities “.
In the summary of the ‘Palma Arena’ case in which he was charged, although he was not finally brought to trial, two more similar bills appear. In April 2007 Arnaldo made another opinion for the same public entity – despite being incompatible according to the Statute that regulated his work as a lawyer – for which he charged on this occasion 2.088 euros.
His office, Legal and Procedural Studies SL, He then made an “opinion on the legal regime applicable to informational activity, and the specialization of free spaces for electoral propagandal of the Public Radio and Television Entity of the Balearic Islands in the framework of the regional and municipal elections within the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands “.
The third document to which this newspaper has had access is from a previous year, January 2006, when Arnaldo’s office issued an invoice for 1,740 euros -like the previous ones, the service plus VAT– also to Balearic television for an “opinion on public analysis of the SGAE rates in relation to the contracts for the authorization, neither exclusive nor non-transferable to third parties, on the use of its repertoire for the acts of public communication and reproduction established therein, by the television media “.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.