ACCYDED - Citizens Association Against Corruption and for the Defense of the Rule of Law

Not justice

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Our media readily expose the "non-justice" of other countries: courts that legitimise abuse and persecute dissenters. They rarely look inwards. Yet power deceives the people with the same tricks everywhere, and the fear of disagreeing with those in charge is just as palpable here. The question is unavoidable: what can happen to you if you dissent?

When reporting becomes a crime

A recent example illustrates this disturbing reality. A Spanish judge who had reported the alleged existence of money held in tax havens in the name of judges was imprisoned in 2023. No institution has publicly explained whether the substance of those reports was investigated of its own motion; the only visible outcome is the consequence for the whistleblower.

What makes it serious is that since February 2023 Spain has had a specific law to prevent exactly that: Law 2/2023 on the protection of persons who report regulatory breaches and on the fight against corruption, which transposes the European Directive 2019/1937. This law expressly prohibits retaliation against those who report corruption. It seems, however, that in certain judicial offices it is either unknown or deliberately ignored.

A pattern that knows no borders

The case is reminiscent of that of a well-known Russian opposition leader who exposed systemic corruption in his country, was imprisoned and eventually died in prison in 2024. The differences between the two systems are obvious, but the underlying pattern is the same: justice used as a tool of repression rather than as a pillar for the defence of fundamental rights.

This pattern can usually be recognised by a number of common features:

  • The whistleblower becomes the one under investigation, while the reported facts remain unexplained.
  • Oversight institutions stay silent or act only against the person who reported.
  • The media avoid the matter or treat it as a personal anecdote.
  • The message for the rest of society is crystal clear: silence is cheaper.

Double standards

Meanwhile, as the press reported in May 2024, the Spanish courts refused to extradite a gang member to El Salvador, arguing that the country does not guarantee minimum human rights standards. That decision may in itself be fully justified. What is shocking is the contrast: our courts are demanding about other countries' safeguards while, at home, whoever reports wrongdoing by the powerful risks being persecuted rather than protected.

Such double standards reinforce the impression that the established powers —legislative, executive and judicial— put their corporate interests, their own cosa nostra, before the basic rules of coexistence and justice.

The lesson history will not let us forget

Anyone wishing to see how far a subservient judiciary can go need only revisit one of the most atrocious episodes in human history: the Holocaust. Very few judges dared to stand up to the machinery that condemned millions of people. The lesson is clear: when justice bows to power, it ceases to be justice and becomes a mechanism for oppressing the most vulnerable.

Justice that fears power is not justice: it is power's enforcer in a gown.

Breaking the cycle

Past and present examples show that justice can be distorted by power, and that the absence of civic resistance only perpetuates the cycle of abuse and repression. To break it, we call for:

  1. Real and effective application of Law 2/2023, including when the reports concern judges, prosecutors or senior officials.
  2. Independent and transparent investigations, opened of their own motion, into every credible report of corruption in any of the three branches of power.
  3. Accountability for retaliation against whistleblowers, with no corporate exceptions.

It is our responsibility as a society to question and challenge these dynamics so that justice fulfils its true purpose: protecting everyone's rights, whatever their position in relation to power. Dissent should not cost anyone their freedom. Get informed, support those who speak out and join those who refuse to give up.

Further reading