Laurence Dollimore
THE royal decree ordering the lockdown of Spain has included sanctions for those who disobey the new rules.
In article 20 of the decree, it refers punishments for going against the order to article 10 of the states of alarm, exception and siege law (Law 4/1981).
The legislation states that failure to comply with the orders of the government will result in a sanction ‘in accordance with current laws.’
The most recent legislation is the hugely controversial Citizen Security Law, otherwise known as the Gag Law.
Brought in under Mariano Rajoy in 2015, the Citizen Security Law identifies as a serious offence ‘disobedience or resistance to authority or its agents in the exercise of their functions when they do not constitute a crime.’
It also classes as serious ‘the refusal to identify oneself at the request of the authority or its agents or giving false or inaccurate data to the authorities.’
Committing these serious offences is punishable by fines ranging from €600 to €30,000, according to article 36.6.
The fines start from €100 euros for lighter penalties, such as removing a police seal.
The Spanish Penal Code also establishes, in article 556, prison sentences of three months to one year for those who ‘seriously resist or disobey the authority or its agents in the exercise of their functions, or duly identified private security personnel who carry out private security activities in cooperation and under the command of the Security Forces and Bodies.’
That article also cites article 550, which makes punishable ‘acts against teaching or health officials who are in the exercise of the functions proper to their office’, with prison terms of one to four years and/or heavy fines.
The law on states of alarm also establishes that, if rule breakers are officials, ‘the authorities may immediately suspend them in the exercise of their duties…. and if those who break the rules are the authorities themselves, their powers may be assumed by the Government of Spain’.
The Government also has the General Law on Public Health, in which it collects fines of €3,001 to €60,000 euros for serious offences, such as: “Acts or omissions that may produce a risk or serious harm to the health of the population… the denial of support, aid or collaboration with agents of the health authority or the failure to comply with the instructions received from the competent authority, if it involves damage to health.”
But the fines will still be greater, from €60,001 to €600,000, for very serious cases of disobedience, reported La Voz.
This would be those who ‘repeatedly’ break the rules, posing a serious damage to health.
Meanwhile, the Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who is heading up the military interventions across the country, said ‘citizens have a civic duty to collaborate and to not hinder the work of the agents.’
He added that breaching their orders or resisting them will lead to sanctions ‘in line with current legislation.’
