Constitutional appeal before the Constitutional Court filed on 20 July 2021

The constitutional appeal is the last internal filter before Europe. This brief sets out what was asked of the Constitutional Court and on what basis.

The brief

• Filed on 20 July 2021, within time from the Supreme Court's judgment of 2 June (A.29).
• Rights invoked, all of Article 24 of the Constitution: effective judicial protection, a trial with all guarantees, the use of relevant means of evidence and the presumption of innocence.
• Signed by Apolozan's legal representation, with the case documentation attached.

The inventory it contained

• Proven facts contradicted by public documents in the case and not weighed (A.1, A.3, A.4, A.5, A.10).
• The measure of arrest and imprisonment ordered by the sentencing court itself on the eve of the trial, on a non-location the police report contradicted — later set aside (A.16).
• An audiovisual record of the hearing with cuts, staging of the opening and absent stretches (A.18, A.21, A.22) — the trial's record, under Article 743 of the Criminal Procedure Act, incomplete.
• Relevant evidence not taken without reasons (A.17).

The appeal, in dates

→ 2-6-2021 — Supreme Court judgment: the period opens (A.29) → 20-7-2021 — constitutional appeal filed, within the 30 working days (DOC-0152) → 1-9-2021 — the Constitutional Court records its receipt (DOC-0149) → 22-2-2022 — order of non-admission, without examination of the merits (A.31, DOC-0155)

Its function in the European file

Beyond its own claim, this brief fulfils the requirement of exhaustion of the internal avenue demanded by Article 35 of the European Convention on Human Rights: it leaves a record that each infringement was invoked, before the competent body, in due time and form. The response it received appears in A.31.

How to verify it

Read the prayer for relief and the list of rights invoked; compare them with the resolution of non-admission (A.31). The distance between what was raised and what was answered is measured in a single reading.

Contrast with the original file

The complete constitutional file appears in Bilbao Original: the full constitutional appeal (DOC-0153, DOC-0154, DOC-0156), its acknowledgement of timely filing (DOC-0152) and the record of receipt of appeal 5022-2021 (DOC-0149).