By Tara Rippin • 20 June 2020 • 11:18
OVER the last three months, flouting confinement has led to a siginificant number of proposals for sanctions that can lead to fines ranging from €600 euros for unauthorised travel to €10,400 for organising or taking part in group activities that pose a risk of contagion.
By autonomous community, and with data from mid-June, Andalucia has the highest number of sanctions, with just over 194,000, ahead of Madrid with about 183,000, and the Valencian Community (around 167,000).
The three communities represent almost half of the total (48 per cent) of fines and the majority of arrests, with more almost 1,500 each.
However, experts predict a flurry of appeals due to the different interpretations of some aspects of the State of Alert law.
The Citizen Security Law, known as the Gag Law, has been used by officers to denounce flouters, and some lawyers question whether a specific sanctioning regime should have been created.
Gabriel Doménech, Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Valencia, told Efe the regulation has been “insufficient” and the Government has tried to use this sanctioning regime “with debatable interpretations”.
While a professor in the same field at the National University of Distance Education (UNED), highlighted the problems in the classification of the offence, generally for disobedience, and anticipates appeals.
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Tara Rippin is a reporter for Spain’s largest English-speaking newspaper, Euro Weekly News, and is responsible for the Costa Blanca region. She has been in journalism for more than 20 years, having worked for local newspapers in the Midlands, UK, before relocating to Spain in 1990. Since arriving, the mother-of-one has made her home on the Costa Blanca, while spending 18 months at the EWN head office in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol. She loves being part of a community that has a wonderful expat and Spanish mix, and strives to bring the latest and most relevant news to EWN’s loyal and valued readers.
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