The Judiciary appoints for the first time a woman as a member of the Central Military Court

A woman will be, for the first time, a member of the Central Military Court (TMC), the instance of the military jurisdiction competent to judge officers of employment equal to or higher than commander of the three armies and the Civil Guard. The Permanent Commission of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has agreed this Thursday to appoint acting member of the TMC to the auditor colonel, Inmaculada Benavente Cózar, current president of the Second Territorial Military Court, based in Seville.

Until now, no soldier had held such a high position in the military jurisdiction, although in 2009 Judge Clara Martínez de Careaga became the first woman in the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court, made up of civil and military judges.

The Permanent Commission of the CGPJ, meeting in Cádiz, has resorted to an exceptional procedure to make this acting appointment, since the reform approved in 2021 prevents the council from allocating appointments of judges when their mandate has already expired, as has been the case for some time now. more than five years.

The CGPJ called an extraordinary contest to avoid the collapse of the military justice, but the two positions of members of the Central Military Court were declared void due to lack of candidate. Now, he has managed to cover it provisionally with a colonel, although the members of said court must be robed generals.

The Unified Association of Military Officers (AUME) and the Unified Association of the Civil Guard (AUGC) have resorted to this system, since in the contest judge positions were awarded to members of the legal body who served as advisors to the armies or the Ministry of Defense, but that objection does not arise with Colonel Benavente.

In May 2021, the new member of the TMC became the first woman to head one of the five territorial military courts. In an interview with

Diario de Sevilla

after taking office, she assured that “there are no restrictions in the Armed Forces for women” and that sexual harassment behaviors among the military “exist and, when known, they are persecuted and they punish But I sincerely believe that there is a lower incidence among the general population, it may be because we have discipline on top of us,” she added.

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Since December 21, 2022, the TMC lacks a president and all its regular members, so, in order to resolve this complex situation in a stable manner and given the impossibility of the Judiciary to make appointments, they proceeded to appoint in office the two most senior auditor colonels, presidents of other territorial military courts, in order to provide the TCM with a presiding auditor and a robed member.

After the transfer to the reserve, due to age, of one of the acting members, the Permanent Commission has agreed to appoint Colonel Benavente, who like her colleagues will have to make this position compatible with the presidency of her territorial court.

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