The judge in the Dana case denounces a campaign to “undermine” the case and remove her from the investigation.

The judge in Catarroja (Valencia) investigating the 2024 flood has reported an alleged attempt to “undermine” the case by lawyer, YouTuber, and agitator Ruben Gisbert. Gisbert is a lawyer representing six victims of the flood who last week filed a complaint against Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra before the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV). Gisbert claimed that the investigating judge's husband, Jorge Martínez, who is also a judge, had participated in taking witness statements in the initial phase of the investigation into the disaster at the Catarroja court. The judge now refuses to accept the challenge—a mechanism to remove her from the case—requested by this lawyer. "The complaint filed against me has not been admitted for processing. It is therefore not grounds for recusal and therefore has no legal basis,“ the investigating judge said in a ruling released on Monday. In it, she points to the lawyer's ”animosity" towards the investigating judge. Along with the recusal of Ruiz Tobarra, Gisbert requested that the investigation carried out over the last 16 months by this magistrate be annulled. “This claim is simply procedural fraud aimed at removing this judge from the proceedings without cause, in which all kinds of crude and unrelated arguments are thrown together in a hodgepodge,” said the judge, who defined the grounds against her as follows: “It is a kind of list of grievances, allegations of crimes, allegations about the jurisdiction of this court, and an alleged bias in the investigation, despite the fact that the rulings are endorsed by the Provincial Court,” the judge points out. Ruiz Tobarra refers to the dozens of rulings by the Provincial Court of Valencia that have upheld her key decisions, such as the indictment of the two former senior officials from Mazón under investigation: the former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, and her deputy during the disaster, Emilio Argüeso. The investigating judge thus justifies the “resentment” of the lawyer who has tried to challenge her. “The professional frustration of Mr. Gisbert, the lawyer, is understandable given his lack of success in the only claims he has made, but it is not understandable that this has turned into a torrent of insults, each one more offensive than the last, directed at me,” she concludes. The judge lists the consequences of resetting the investigation to zero. “Mr. Gisbert has little interest in this proceeding when he wants to make a clean sweep,” she criticizes. «Со стороны данного адвоката наблюдается недостаточное уважение к родственникам погибших и пострадавшим, когда от них требуют вновь рассказать о перенесенных ими страданиях. Недостаточно желания проводить расследование, когда требуется уничтожить все доказательства, такие как отчеты, записи, звонки, видеозаписи...», — добавляет судья. В другом постановлении судья Руис Тобарра просит стороны — прокуратуру, народных и частных обвинителей, а также защиту — высказаться по поводу ее решения обратиться в TSJCV с просьбой о предъявлении обвинения бывшему президенту Женералитата Карлосу Мазону. На прошлой неделе судья вынесла мотивированное заключение, в котором просила расследовать дело Мазона за его «грубую халатность в связи с трагедией». Поскольку он обладает иммунитетом (бывший глава Consell является депутатом автономного парламента), политик может быть привлечен к ответственности только этим высшим судом, а не судом Катаррохи. Судья теперь просит стороны высказать свое мнение по поводу ее мотивированного заявления в Уголовную и гражданскую палату TSJCV.