Natalio Grueso remains at the center of a dramatic legal chapter. The Provincial Court issued an arrest warrant against the former top executive of the Niemeyer Center, sentencing him to eight years in prison. Alarmingly, there was no prior notice that would have alerted him to report to jail. Grueso’s defense argues that his client did not receive any notification, and notes that the Asturias Supreme Court of Justice has not yet ruled on temporary freedom even as the government weighs a potential pardon. The defense emphasizes that it is uncommon for someone to be sent to prison before any appeal is resolved.
The former leader of the Niemeyer Center was already sentenced to five years for embezzling public funds in a separate mediation contest, plus three additional years for ongoing corporate offenses, with related charges including falsifying a commercial and an official document. This judgment dates back to June 25, 2020, and the sentence became final on April 6, 2023.
Roughly a month later, Natalio Grueso, who guided the cultural center on the Avilés estuary from 2007 to 2012, sought clemency through the Ministry of Justice via the Grace Office for Rights and related relief channels. The appeal garnered support from prominent figures in the arts such as American filmmaker Woody Allen, musicians Victor Manuel and Joan Manuel Serrat, singer India Martínez, and former Justice Minister and broadcaster Manuel Pimentel. The core argument claimed that the 78,819 euro embezzlement penalty was excessive, and added that Grueso had played a significant role in developing and promoting Spanish culture.
Subsequently, the defense team from Vox Legis requested the Third Division of the Asturias State Court to postpone Natalio Grueso’s imprisonment while the pardon process unfolded. The court rejected the request on July 13 and again on appeal. On July 31, the court ordered that the prisoner be transferred to jail by Judicial Police.
no results search
The police apparatus mobilized. On August 8, the Civil Guard Unit of the Judicial Police sent a report to the Provincial Court detailing that attempts to locate the detainee at the last known address had failed. The report noted the last known residence was in Madrid and that documents had been handed to the Madrid Civil Guard Command. Repeated visits to the address found no one there, and the mailbox bore no name, only a record that Grueso was listed at the address. Neighbors did not recognize him, and there was no verifiable activity reported. Investigations continued in Asturias, where the National Lodging Registry indicated Grueso’s presence at several hotels in the past year, including Castellón-Morella, Seville, Málaga, Almería, Cádiz-Jerez de la Frontera, and Córdoba, with the latest entry on June 1 at Hostal España in Cádiz.
Another Madrid address tied to Niemeyer’s former chief, at the offices of a law firm, also proved unoccupied. The lawsuit listed the same man at multiple locations, yet none of them yielded results.
The report highlights that the convict’s mobile phone was answered on several occasions but either rang out of range or stayed off. When the lawyer was reached, the reply spoke of a return call that never came. After a cycle of unanswered calls, no further contact occurred.
A day after receiving the search outcome, the Third Division of the Provincial Court ruled that given the factual background and the unknown whereabouts of Natalio Grueso, the documented steps of search, arrest and imprisonment could proceed.
With the clock ticking toward the appeal deadline, Grueso’s defense was informed of the search, arrest and jail warrant on the Thursday before the ruling.
Defense
Niemeyer’s former chief executive faced surprise from his legal team regarding the chain of events. They asserted that Grueso was pursued and apprehended for immediate incarceration without notification. Francisco Miranda, head of the Vox Legis law firm, argued that Grueso did not surrender due to a lack of notice. He claimed that his client had appeared as required and complied with every court order, only learning of the immediate imprisonment when the order was issued around late July or early August. Miranda stressed that the legality of issuing a search and jail sentence while the TSJA review was pending, especially after the government refused amnesty, was unusual. The government had previously declined to grant relief.
Miranda noted that the Asturias Prosecutor’s Office did not object to delaying imprisonment until the pardon decision was resolved, adding that government resolutions typically take three to six months. He argued that normally, the execution of a sentence is suspended during an amnesty review, and it is uncommon to advance imprisonment without knowledge of permissible timeframes. This case, according to him, stands apart from standard procedures.
The defense also recalled a prior incident from September 2018, when Grueso faced arrest but later surrendered to serve a jail term just before a trial began. He was released the following October after paying a 40,000 euro deposit. The current conviction, which the Supreme Court upheld, found that Grueso, aged 53, while serving as managing director of the Óscar Niemeyer International Cultural Center Foundation, diverted funds for personal use rather than for the foundation, impacting the organization’s resources during his tenure.