Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- The Prosecutor’s Office has withdrawn the accusation of five of the defendants in “Operation Jable”, the alleged corruption plot that operated two decades ago in Arrecife (Lanzarote), and has recognized undue delays in the procedure, during a hearing held this Monday before the Court of Las Palmas, which has suspended the trial until next week.
The president of the court that is going to judge the case, magistrate José Luis Ruiz, has postponed its start until next Monday since one of the main accused, the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, was unable to attend today for health reasons. , whose condition will be assessed by a forensic doctor to decide whether he is willing to appear at the sessions.
The court has agreed to urgently request the duty court of Arrecife to examine Déniz, who together with the former leader and founder of the Independent Party of Lanzarote (PIL) Dimas Martín, initially faced 13 years in prison as the main defendants in this process, which is part of the well-known “Union Case”, which includes officials, politicians and businessmen.
The defendants, according to the public accusation, “rigged” contests to award the companies Urbaser and FCC jobs in exchange for payments in cash or in the form of “gifts” or gifts, which in the case of Déniz allowed him to increase his assets by 400,000 euros, and also created several companies that benefited from these contracts.
The Las Palmas Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, Javier Ródenas, has reported the withdrawal of the accusation against the FCC defendant Enrique Astorga González, since his company partner Enrique José Hernández Martín has assumed responsibility for the facts attributed to him and for which he was initially facing a sentence of four years in prison.
Likewise, Ródenas has indicated that the crime of prohibited activities against officials has been prescribed, of which Manuel Jesús Isidro Spínola Perdomo, Julio Pedro Romero Ortega, Daniel Hernández Caraballo and Rafael Antonio Corujo Gil de Montes are accused, who were required to pay a fine and suspension from employment or public office; the first of them for a period of three years, the second for seven months and the others, half a year.
These four defendants, according to the prosecutor, had participated in the creation of the companies that benefited from the contracts with Tecmed, which later became Urbaser, and FCC.
Regarding the undue delays that the prosecutor has described as simple, he explained that they are due to the five years that the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has taken to resolve two recusal incidents that should have been processed within a period of 30 days, each one of them.
These delays, which mean a reduced sentence, will be applied to the rest of the eleven defendants for whom the accusation is maintained, since one of the defendants has died: Matías Curbelo Luzardo, one of the senior officials of the Urbaser company who recognized the facts and collaborated in the investigation to uncover the plot.
Among the defendants for whom the case continues are the former head of the Technical Office of the Arrecife City Council Rafael Arrocha, the former municipal secretary Felipe Fernández Camero, the former secretary of the PSOE in Arrecife Miguel Ángel Leal, as well as representatives of the companies Urbaser and FCC.
The couples of María Isabel Déniz and Dimas Martín will also be tried for allegedly having profited from the operations of the plot to which the Prosecutor’s Office attributes crimes of bribery, embezzlement, document forgery, prevarication, disclosure of secrets, fraud and illicit association.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Déniz would have received gifts and cash payments from Urbaser, a trip to Kenya together with another investigated, Felipe Fernández Camero, with their respective partners; more than 120,000 euros in cash, a living room furniture, a Rólex watch, a Loewe bag, tickets to the opera, first-class plane tickets and stays in five-star hotels, among other perks.
In addition, the former mayor of Arrecife would have received trips to Marrakech (Morocco) from the company FCC for her and eight members of her family, which generated an expense of 16,674 euros.
The former secretary of the Arrecife City Council Felipe Fernández Camero, who was in charge of legally advising the Consistory and was part of the contracting table, had so far faced a sentence of 11 years and six months in prison, as well as 18 years of disqualification, while for the head of the Technical Office, 20 years and six months are claimed, the highest sentence.
Likewise, the civil liability demanded of FCC and Urbaser has been withdrawn, which in the case of the former amounted to 8 million euros, since it was claimed by the popular accusation exercised by the Association of Jurists for the Defense of Legality and Guarantee of the Jiménez de Asúa Process, which is no longer included in the process and was also not empowered to claim it, the prosecutor has indicated.
The popular accusation and the one exercised by the Arrecife City Council have adhered to the changes introduced by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor. EFE