Spanish police border inspector faces fresh disciplinary case – report

The Policia Nacional inspector in charge at the border is facing a fresh disciplinary case for allegedly ordering his officers to stamp the Chief Minister’s passport, as well as disobeying orders from the police commissioner in La Linea, according to Campo newspaper Europa Sur.

The inspector, who is currently suspended for five and half months without employment or salary over unrelated disciplinary matters, could be transferred to other duties or face up to six years’ suspension if the case goes against him.

According to the newspaper, the disciplinary case alleges that the inspector gave “arbitrary and discriminatory” orders to his officers, telling them to stamp the Chief Minister’s passport should he cross into Spain, though not the documents of anyone travelling with him if they were carrying red Gibraltar ID cards.

According to the complaint as reported, he did this even while knowing that the Chief Minister was a red ID card holder.

The orders were never given effect after the inspector’s senior officers were alerted and took steps.

The inspector is also facing scrutiny after creating a group on an internal communications platform and openly questioning orders he had received from the commissioner in La Linea.

The officer in question has been at the centre of controversy in recent months after unilaterally ordering on several occasions that passports of Gibraltar residents should be stamped, causing disruption to Gibraltarians and cross-border workers alike.

Under interim measures in place pending the outcome of treaty negotiations, Gibraltar residents can cross after showing passports and red ID cards, but without being stamped in or out of the Schengen zone.

Conversely under those arrangements, Gibraltar immigration officials allow Spanish and EU nationals to enter with just an ID card.

The fear is that without those interim measures, tighter controls would lead to severe disruption for citizens travelling in both directions, even as negotiators say they are close to a deal that will guarantee post-Brexit border fluidity.

Alongside the unilateral actions at the border, the inspector had also filed a complaint in a La Linea court alleging that the measures being applied at the border were at odds with Schengen rules.

But earlier this year, the judge closed the case and in effect dismissed the inspector’s complaint that interim immigration controls applied to Gibraltar residents breached EU law.