Álvaro García Ortiz (born 16 December 1967) is a Spanish jurist and prosecutor who has worked for the

Supreme Court of Spain The Supreme Court ('', TS'') is the Supreme court, highest court in the Spain, Kingdom of Spain. The court has original jurisdiction over cases against high-ranking officials of the Kingdom and over cases regarding the legalization of political p ...

. Since 2022, he has been Spanish attorney general. Prior to 2022, García Ortiz was chief prosecutor at the

Prosecution Ministry The Prosecution Ministry () or Public Prosecutor's Office is a constitutional body ( Part VIbr>§ 124 which has full autonomy within the judiciary of Spain. It is entrusted with defending the rule of law, the rights of the citizens, and publi ...

Professional career

García Ortiz was born on 16 December 1967 in Lumbrales and graduated with a degree in law from the

University of Valladolid The University of Valladolid is a public university located in the city of Valladolid, Valladolid province, autonomous region of Castile and Leon, Spain. Established in the 13th century, it is one of the oldest universities in the world. The ...

, then he began working for the

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prosecutor's office in 1998. Two years later, he was assigned to the

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

's Prosecutor's Office and, in 2004, he was promoted to the Prosecutor's Office in the High Court of Justice of Galicia, as an environmental prosecutor. From this position, he led the public prosecution in the

Prestige oil spill The ''Prestige'' oil spill occurred off the coast of Galicia, Spain in November 2002, caused by the sinking of the 26-year-old, structurally deficient oil tanker , carrying 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. During a storm, it burst a tank on 1 ...

. In 2018, he was elected by his peers to be part of the , an advisory body to the Attorney General of the State. In 2020, after spending around two decades working in environmental law, attorney general Dolores Delgado promoted him to chief prosecutor of the Attorney General's Office's Technical Secretariat. García Ortiz is part of the management team of the European Judges for Democracy and Liberty''.'' In the past, he also wrote as a columnist for the Spanish media and in technical publications.

Attorney General

On 19 July 2022, after Dolores Delgado announced she would resign for health reasons, it was revealed that García Ortiz would be the government's nominee to replace her. On 21 July, the

General Council of the Judiciary The General Council of the Judiciary (, CGPJ) is the national council of the judiciary of Spain. It is the constitutional body that governs all the Judiciary of Spain, such as courts, and judges, as it is established by the Spanish Constitut ...

endorsed his nomination by a vote of twelve to seven.Following a review period by the Justice Commission of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

, the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

appointed him Attorney General on 1 August 2022. The next day, he took office before the

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, in the Royal Palace of La Almudaina. After

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

formed his third government, the Council of Ministers asked that García Ortiz's suitability for office was reviewed. After the request was granted, the General Council of the Judiciary found, in a non-binding report, that he was unsuitable for office. This was the first time in Spanish democratic history that the government's candidate for Attorney General had been rejected. Despite this, the government re-appointed García Ortiz on 27 December 2023. Since 16 October 2024, García Ortiz has been investigated by the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

for suspicions that he or his office could have leaked to the press private emails related to a tax fraud case of the boyfriend of the president of the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

. 14 days later the Civil Guard searched the Prosecutor's Office looking for evidence of the crime.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortiz, Álvaro García Spanish jurists 1967 births Living people People from Lumbrales University of Valladolid alumni Spanish prosecutors 20th-century Spanish lawyers 21st-century Spanish lawyers Spanish civil servants