Photos: Sergio Betancort
The demolition of the illegal works carried out by Dimas Martín in his house in Los Rostros began this Monday, thus complying with the sentence of one of the pieces of the Unión case. In addition to imposing two years in prison on the historical leader of the PIL for a crime against land management, that ruling ordered the demolition of what was illegally built on protected land in Yaiza, within the Los Volcanes Natural Park.
In the execution phase of the sentence, Dimas was required to voluntarily carry out the demolition, but since he did not do so, the Canary Islands Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands has assumed it in a subsidiary manner, at the request of the Court. For this, it has hired an external company, after tendering the works with a budget of more than 51,000 euros. Afterwards, that money will be claimed from Dimas Martín.
The start of the works was scheduled for 10:30 a.m., although upon arrival they found that the windows and carpentry were not there, which could have been previously removed by the owners. The house is in the name of Dimas Martín's wife, who was also charged in this case, although the sentence finally considered him responsible for these illegal works.
In addition to the company's workers, several police officers have come to the site, who have been in charge of securing the area, as well as officials from the Government of the Canary Islands.
"We are not facing just any protected land"
"We are not facing just any protected land, we are not facing just any rustic land, we are facing works that are carried out within a Natural Park, with everything that this entails," stated the sentence that condemned Dimas Martín. Regarding the content of the works he carried out, and which are the ones that are going to be demolished, he pointed out that they consisted of adding three new rooms to a pre-existing house, raising the ceilings and building a 30-square-meter swimming pool, as well as a paved access terrace of about 25 meters and a wall around the perimeter of the house.
"Mr. Dimas Martín thought it would be nice to have a swimming pool to dive into, in which to take strokes of freedom, on protected land, and he has ended up splashing in the puddle of crime. And now he doesn't want the prison sentence to splash him," the prosecutor said during the conclusions of the trial.
In addition, he also referred to the speech repeated by Dimas, who argues that there is a kind of "persecution" against him. "What is persecuting him is simply the Law. The Law that he has violated so many times," stressed Javier Ródenas, who added that "the one who has built a cage is Dimas Martín himself, with his lies and his way of doing things."
A complaint from Pedro de Armas
The criminal investigation of these works began within the framework of Operation Unión, when the UCO agents had several telephones of politicians and businessmen on the island tapped, including that of Dimas Martín. Although the investigation focused on crimes such as bribery and embezzlement of public funds, they also intercepted several conversations in which the historical leader of the PIL was trying to prevent the City Council from sealing off these works, since complaints had been received.
At least one of those complaints had been filed by the one who was his party colleague, Pedro de Armas, who went directly to Seprona. This was confirmed during the investigation by one of the agents, who pointed out that the former member of the PIL, of CC and of the PNL expressly asked him not to have his name appear as the complainant of these works.