Cándido Conde Pumpido

Personal life

Conde-Pumpido was born in A Coruña (Corunna), a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. His father was also a Prosecutor. He graduated from University of Santiago de Compostela, and received his J.D. in Law and Economics in 1971. He worked as a Judge in San Sebastián and Segovia for twenty years. He played an active role on the boards of directors for the Judges for Democracy Association.

Conde-Pumpido was nominated to the Supreme Court of Spain in 1995. The Supreme Court of Spain (Spanish: Tribunal Supremo) is the highest court in Spain for all matters not pertaining to the Spanish Constitution. The court which meets in the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid, consists of a president and an indeterminate number of magistrates appointed to the five chambers of the court.

In 2004, Conde-Pumpido was appointed as Prosecutor General (Attorney General) by the King of Spain, on a proposal from the Government of President Rodriguez Zapatero, after receiving the opinion of the General Council of the Judiciary, and he was the Spanish AG from 2004 to 2011. Now he came back to the Supreme Court of Spain.

He has written many papers, including “National prosecution authorities and criminal justice system: the challenges ahead”. ERA Forum, NL, 2009.

Attorney general

The Attorney general (Fiscal General del Estado de España) Spanish State is the highest official of the public prosecutor (Ministerio Fiscal) of the Kingdom of Spain. He was appointed by the King of Spain, on a proposal from the Government, after receiving the opinion of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). Its existence is provided for in article 124 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, which establishes the public Ministry. The incumbent of this position was April 23, 2004 to 19 December 2011, Candido Conde-Pumpido.

President of Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors

In October 2007, in the XV Assembly celebrated in Madrid, Conde-Pumpido was elected unanimously to assume the Presidency of the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMP). The Ibero-American Association of public prosecutors is composed of 21 countries and is aimed at closer ties of cooperation, solidarity and professional enrichment between the Ibero-American prosecutors.

Conde-Pumpido participated, as the Prosecutor General of Spain in three World Summits of Prosecutors General, Attorneys General and Chief Prosecutors, organized by the United Nations. II Summit, held in Doha, Qatar, from 14 to 16 November 2005, intervened in the plenary with a speech about the specialization of the Prosecutor's Office. III Summit, in Bucharest, Romania, from 23 to 25 March 2009, he appeared in his capacity as Chairman of the AIAMP, with a presentation on the structure and functions of this regional organization General Prosecutor Iberoamericana. And IV Summit, which took place in Seoul, Korea South, from June 30 to July 1, 2011, intervened with a presentation on "International crimes".

President of the European network of General Prosecutor near the Supreme courts

Jean-Louis Nadal, Prosecutor General at the Court of cassation in Paris, strongly backed by Conde-Pumpido, creates in 2009 the European network of General Prosecutor near the Supreme courts, which Nadal was the first president. In May 2009 Conde-Pumpido is elected, Praga, President of the network.

Antiterror effort

Conde-Pumpido reinforced the activity of the Prosecutor of the national hearing against Islamist terrorism as a response to the attack of 11 March 2004 in Madrid, increasing its workforce, creating a group of specialized prosecutors and fostering international cooperation to share information, getting the trial for the massacre should be held within a reasonable time and with damning of most of the defendants result. At the same time he advocated and put into practice a preventive criminal policy to Act police and judicially against the commands in training until they were able to cause damage, that improved police efficiency and produced a result positive to prevent further Islamist attacks in Spain throughout its mandate.

Conde-pumpido also launched a U.S.-Spain Bilateral Counter Terrorism Experts Working Group, with prosecutor-to-prosecutor dialogues on Counter Terrorism issues. The U.S.-Spain Bilateral CT experts Working Group was founded in March 2005 on the one-year anniversary of the Madrid train bombings. The January 12–13, 2010 meeting marked the first time that Organised Crime was on the agenda.

On April 17, 2009, Spain's attorney general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, said his office would not support Judge Baltasar Garzon's outrageous effort to prosecute Bush six Administration officials for their role in the US antiterror effort. Spain's AG said any such prosecution would turn his nation's National Court "into a plaything" for politics.

The European Public Prosecutor strongly backed by Conde-Pumpido

Following the attacks on the eurozone by speculators in 2009-10, Spain proposed the EU enact the European Public Prosecutor provision so the post could co-ordinate legal action in retaliation. "Spain wants the European Union to use a planned public prosecutor's office for the region to protect the euro currency against speculators", Spanish Attorney general Cándido Conde-Pumpido said in March 2010.

Agreement to strengthen U.S.-Spanish cooperation

On April 8, 2010, in Madrid, US Attorney General Eric Holder signs an Agreement to strengthen U.S.-Spanish Cooperation with Conde-Pumpido. Holder met with Prosecutor General Conde-Pumpido to discuss the many ways in which the United States and Spain can continue the excellent partnership we have established in counterterrorism, counternarcotics, money laundering, smuggling or combating international organized crime.

United States diplomatic cables leak

On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks and five major newspapers from Spain (El País), France (Le Monde), Germany (Der Spiegel), the United Kingdom (The Guardian), and the United States (The New York Times) started simultaneously to publish the first 220 of 251,287 leaked confidential.

According to the United States diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, U.S. officials tried to pressure Spain into dropping court investigations into the Central Intelligence Agency's extraordinary rendition, torture at Guantanamo Bay, and the 2003 killing of José Couso, a Spanish journalist, in Iraq by American troops. Politicians such as the former Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Ángel Moratinos and the Attorney General Cándido Conde-Pumpido, among others, were pressured by U.S. officials.

The Attorney General Conde-Pumpido strongly denied the version of Ambassador Aguirre contained in the cables.

Cablegate: Argument between Gonzales and Conde-Pumpido about the military trial of terrorists

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales visited Madrid on October 23–24, 2006, to meet with the Spanish Minister of Justice, the Minister of Interior, and the Spanish Prosecutor General Cándido Conde-Pumpido. Attorney General Gonzales also participated in the fourth meeting of the U.S.-Spain Bilateral Counter Terrorism Experts Working Group.

According to the United States diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, Prosecutor General Conde Pumpido said Spain was committed to working with USG judicial and security officials and could offer its own 40-year experience in fighting terrorists. He noted that Spain had a long tradition of military courts, but that such courts now mainly handled disciplinary issues and, in any case, were now under the ultimate authority of the civilian Prosecutor General. He said that Spain had found ways to channel all terrorism cases into the criminal court system, since labeling terrorists combatants rather than criminals simply elevated their position.

Attorney General Gonzales said that this represented a fundamental source of tension between the U.S. and EU positions, since the U.S. believed it was fighting a war and needed to deploy all of the tools of war emphasized that the U.S. had tried many terrorist suspects in civilian courts and would continue to do so where appropriate, but would also use the military justice system in accordance with decisions taken by the President, Congress, and the courts.

Following their meeting, the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General accompanied Attorney General Gonzales to a brief press conference. Spanish media focused on questions related to the War on Terror, but also asked Attorney General Gonzales for his views on the ETA peace process. Attorney General Gonzales responded that the decision on how to confront ETA was an internal Spanish matter.

Attorney General Gonzales, Aguilar, and Conde-Pumpido addressed the members of the Bilateral Counter Terrorism Working Group, that included Spanish prosecutors and USG officials from the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Consular and Political sections of the Embassy. The U.S. and Spanish leaders of the Working Group presented the key developments of the two-day set of meetings, including a decision by the groups to pursue a joint investigation in a terrorism case of mutual interest and a determination to establish direct points of contact between the Spanish Prosecutor's Office and the U.S. Department of Justice.