The former Councilor of Justice and Interior of the Generalitat on the day of the dana, Salomé Pradas, has filed a petition before the Court of Instruction number 3 of Catarroja (Valencia) investigating the management of the flood, requesting the case be archived, rejecting being "selected" as a "scapegoat," and arguing that the response to what happened should be addressed in the administrative jurisdiction rather than in criminal proceedings.
This is stated in the document to which Europa Press has had access, in which the defense of the former councilor, investigated in the case along with her former number two, Emilio Argüeso, former regional secretary, points out that, "out of utmost respect" for the victims, families, and affected parties, the floods on October 29 stem from the "undeniable" fact of being "a natural disaster of impressive magnitude that unfolded with unstoppable speed."
The defense argues that "no one has attacked the lives of the deceased" as it was a natural disaster that "due to its characteristics and speed of its course, constituted a phenomenon of impossible prediction or, failing that, prevention," hence the need for closure. As an argument, it adds that "in Spain, and in the Valencian Community, tragedies of nature that produce a large number of victims in a very short time occasionally occur," mentioning the Valencia flood of 1957, the one in Bilbao in 1983, or the "most deadly of all, Covid-19."
The defense, in the appeal against the ruling that summoned Pradas as a suspect, reproaches that this status is attributed to her in this process to ascertain criminal responsibilities for 225 negligent homicides and reckless injuries—besides three missing persons—based on her position as the "highest authority," but "overlooking the co-direction with the Government delegate regarding the population’s self-protection measures."
In this line, it argues that the competencies in the matters affected by the dana "do not only refer to civil protection" and emphasizes that, "certainly," the State "also has competencies, and agencies under it also played a relevant role in the events, such as the Government Delegation, AEMET, and the Júcar Confederation."
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