Union backs officers refusing to evict Spain homeowners

IMAGE: A placard referring to mortgage owners returning their property in lieu of payments is seen as Maria, who lost his house, prepares food with other protestors in Madrid.

AP Photo:Andres Kudacki. IMAGE: A placard referring to mortgage owners returning their property in lieu of payments is seen as Maria, who lost his house, prepares food with other protestors in Madrid.

11/11/12

The move follows two suicides of people facing evictions as officials tried to repossess their homes.

MADRID — A police union says it will back officers who refuse to evict those who can't repay their mortgages in Spain after two people committed suicide as bailiffs arrived to repossess their homes.

Spain's Unified Police Union, representing some 25,000 officers, said Sunday it hopes the measure will contribute to stalling evictions.

Kutxabank, a bank based in north Spain, announced Saturday that it would "suspend all foreclosure proceedings until new regulations are drawn up."

Last week 47 judges in Spain's General Council of the Judiciary urged politicians to draw up new legislation ending forcible evictions for mortgage arrears. Judge Alfonso Gonzalez-Guija, Dean of the Courts of Bilbao, said such measures were "within their grasp."

Fifteen-year-old Michael Westley, who died Sunday, was the youngest victim in a series of shootings that left more than three dozen other people wounded.