José María Romero de Tejada Gómez (15 August 1948 – 27 November 2017), was a Spanish conservative jurist who was the Attorney General of

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

from 2013 until his death in 2017.

Biography and career

Born in Barcelona, Romero de Tejada studied law at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

between 1965 and 1970, where he continued teaching as a teacher. When he was 25 years old he entered the judicial school and the first destination was

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

. In September 1974, he began work at the Public Prosecutor of Barcelona, where he was a deputy prosecutor of the Superior Court of Justice of Barcelona. In the 80s, he was positioned in favor of the actions of the then anti-corruption prosecutor

Carlos Jiménez Villarejo Carlos Jiménez Villarejo (born 1935 in Málaga) is a former Spanish anti-corruption public prosecutor in office between 2000 and 2004. As a left-wing democrat jurist, he is specialized in the struggle against tax havens. He collaborates with A ...

in the Banca Catalana case. He was appointed top fiscal of Catalonia in July 2013, after the Attorney General of the State forced to resign Martín Rodríguez Sol because he defended the celebration of the

2014 Catalan self-determination referendum Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an un ...

. By order of Eduardo Torres-Dulce, the Attorney General of Spain, filed the complaint that led Judgment against

Artur Mas Artur Mas i Gavarró (; born 31 January 1956) is a Catalan politician from Spain. He was president of the Government of Catalonia from 2010 to 2015 and acting president from September 2015 to 12 January 2016. Mas is a long time member of De ...

, former

President of the Generalitat of Catalonia The president of the Government of Catalonia (, ) is head of government of Catalonia, leading the executive branch of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Catalan government. It is one of the bodies that the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia stipu ...

;

Joana Ortega Joana Ortega i Alemany (born 13 November 1959 in Barcelona) was the List of Vice Presidents of Catalonia, vice president of the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya and List of Counsellors of Governance and Public Administration of Catalonia ...

, former vice president of the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Irene Rigau, former

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

, for 9-N. This happened in the moment when the Catalan prosecutors, in extraordinary meeting, had considered that it did not have to be filled.

Spanish constitutional crisis

On 23 September 2017 Romero de Tejada placed the lieutenant colonel, Diego Pérez de los Cobos Orihuel, as the head of the State security forces and bodies in

, including the

Mossos d'Esquadra The ''Mossos d'Esquadra'' (; ), also known as the ''Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya'' and informally as ''Mossos'', is the State police#Spain, regional police force in the autonomous community of Catalonia. They trace their origins back ...

– in parallel to

Operation Anubis The Operation Anubis was a police operation in Catalonia, Spain, initiated on 20 September 2017 by the Civil Guard (Spain), Civil Guard following orders of the trial court number 13 of Barcelona, directed by judge Juan Antonio Ramírez Sunyer. Its ...

– when the Spanish government tried to restrain the self-determination referendum on 1 October. On 25 September he ordered the Mossos to go to all polling stations in search of ballot boxes and to warn their perpetrators that it was a crime to cede those locales. Moreover, he presented complaints to the

High Court of Justice of Catalonia The High Court of Justice of Catalonia () is the highest body and last judicial instance of the Spanish judiciary in Catalonia. Unlike the Parliament of Catalonia (legislative branch) or the Executive Council of Catalonia (executive branch), t ...

against the President of the Generalitat,

Carles Puigdemont Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. He has been the President of Together for Catalonia (Junts) since 2024, having previously held the office from 2020 to 2022. He served ...

, and his Government, and against the Bureau of Parliament for the sovereignty process. He communicated to

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero Álvarez this instruction, who acted quickly.

Death

Romero de Tejada died on 27 November 2017 from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

, aggravated by

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

, at the age of 69 in a hospital in Barcelona.Muere el fiscal superior de Catalunya José María Romero de Tejada a los 69 años
Coincidentally, his death occurred just nine days after the sudden death of the

Attorney General of Spain The Attorney General of the State ''(')'', or also, Prosecutor General, is the head of the Prosecution Ministry, Public Prosecutor's Office (''Ministerio Fiscal''), the independent body within the Judiciary, that is tasked with promoting the opera ...

, José Manuel Maza.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Romero de Tejada, José María 1948 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Spanish judges Spanish prosecutors 21st-century Spanish judges Lawyers from Barcelona

Biography and career

Spanish constitutional crisis

Death

See also

References