The former mayor of Arrecife María Isabel Déniz (2000-2007), accused in Operation Jable, has acknowledged that she received bribes in the form of "details and gifts" from some companies that worked with the city council for a value of 45,000 euros when she was in charge of the capital. This is stated in a document signed by her lawyer to which La Voz has had access.
Among them, a trip to Madrid between January 19 and 21, 2006 with a cost of 991.48 euros, collected by the Public Prosecutor's Office in its indictment. "These facts constitute a crime of improper passive bribery," the defense of the former politician has pointed out. The Public Prosecutor's Office is asking for Isabel Déniz to be sentenced to 13 years in prison for the alleged authorship of five crimes, including the continued crimes of prevarication and bribery, as well as illicit association.
However, Isabel Déniz's defense lawyer, José María Calero Martínez, points out that the crime has been prescribed due to undue delays in the case beyond the defendant's control. For this reason, in the document he has sent to the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, he changes his defense brief and has requested that her criminal liability be declared extinguished and that she be acquitted.
Likewise, in the event that the Court does not accept the statute of limitations for the crime, the defense requests the imposition of a fine of one month, with a daily fee of six euros (180 euros) as well as accessories worth 45,000 euros.
The defense has waived all the proposed evidence and only maintains the statement of Isabel Déniz herself, who will only answer questions from her lawyer; the ratification of an Economic Expert Report collected in the proceedings and the documentary evidence of said report.
Operation Jable was named as such by the Central Operative Unit (UCO) and named as the most complex judicial case in the Canary Islands due to its extension and volume. This plot arises as a result of the irregularities found in the tenders to the company Urbaser for the City Council's garbage contract during Déniz's term and the awarding to Fomento Construcción y Contratas (FCC) of the construction of the Argana Alta pavilion.
Last April, the former FCC executive Enrique Hernández Martín confessed to having bribed Isabel Déniz in exchange for obtaining the aforementioned tender. His confession was added to that of the two senior Urbaser officials Manuel de Andrés Martínez and Santiago Alonso Herrero who confessed to having committed a crime of bribery by bribing to obtain the Arrecife garbage and cleaning contract.
At the beginning of the trial, scheduled for that same month, the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas suspended all the sessions scheduled for April and May, pending a forensic doctor reviewing the health situation of Isabel Déniz. With Isabel Déniz recovered, the resumption of the trial is scheduled for September 11.
