The Provincial Court of Granada will try three men on the 25th for passing off forged bank notes in motril. However, the incident took place 23 years ago, in November 2002.

The Prosecutor’s Office recommends six years in prison and a 600-euro fine for each defendant for counterfeit-currency possession and continued fraud.

Now, the Spanish judicial system is notoriously slow. Couple this with the object behind encarceration, which is to bring about the re-insertion of the criminal back into society; i.e., mending his ways, rather than straight out punishment, then you get a problem.

Yes, you get a problem because after 23 years these men have probably got married, had kids, holding down steady jobs, etc… and now you want to put them in prison for six years?

In fact, there was a case about 30 years ago of a lad in his late teens who stole a couple of chicken and was caught. It took years for his case to reach court but in the meantime, he had got married and was a father and was holding down a good job, but he was sentenced to prison.

The judicial system is so slow because it is seriously underfunded with court buildings in a lamentable states, using obsolete computers with constant problems and files kept in damp storerooms.

People should be held to account for their crimes and sentenced accordingly, but not two decades after the event.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Slow Justice, banknote forgeries, Prison Sentence

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