Finality of a Plea-Agreement Judgment and Enforcement of the Sentence

Our client was facing criminal proceedings in which the strength of the available incriminating evidence made a defence strategy aimed at acquittal unviable. In this scenario, we directed our efforts toward negotiating with the Public Prosecutor's Office a plea agreement that would replace the prison sentence initially contemplated with a fine, thereby avoiding our client's imprisonment.

That negotiation resulted in a plea-agreement judgment sentencing our client to pay a fine of 2,400 euros (equivalent to eight months at a daily rate), with subsidiary personal liability of one day's deprivation of liberty for every two unpaid daily instalments in the event of non-payment — thereby replacing the prison sentence with a purely pecuniary one.

Aware that paying the fine in a single instalment could prove burdensome for our client, we further negotiated with the Public Prosecutor's Office to have the payment spread over instalments. This agreement was reached with the Public Prosecutor's Office, and the Criminal Court (Juzgado de lo Penal) granted our request, accepting both the agreed fine and its payment in six monthly instalments of 400 euros each, while also declaring the judgment final and ordering its entry in the Central Register of Convicted Persons.