The historical leader of the PIL, Dimas Martín, demonstrated this Wednesday that neither the multiple firm convictions he has behind him nor the years he has spent in prison have affected his character or his discourse, and he took advantage of the last word given to the accused in trials to once again present himself as a victim of a kind of plot in which, for two decades, police forces such as the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard, different representatives of the Public Prosecutor's Office, several investigating courts, the Provincial Court and even the Supreme Court, which has ratified the convictions already weighing on him, would have had to participate.
Before defending his innocence in the case being tried for piece 12 of the Unión case, and which has already been seen for sentencing, Dimas began by questioning even his firm conviction in the case of the Agroindustrial Complex, going so far as to state that "it is still in litigation", despite the fact that the ruling is not only final but he has even served the eight-year prison sentence, and the only thing that remains pending is that he returns the embezzled money.
Similarly, he continued to question the firm convictions he already has in two pieces of the Unión case, one of them dictated by the same Chamber that is judging this new case. Next, Dimas began a story that he himself has been in charge of spreading through a letter he has sent to the media, in which he launches very serious accusations against the Public Prosecutor's Office and also against the witnesses who have testified against him in this trial and against some of the accused who have confessed, such as Ubaldo Becerra, creating a parallel story in which he accuses people who are not in the dock of alleged crimes and in which he even launches insinuations about the sexual orientation and personal relationships of some of them.
And all this accompanied by a passionate defense of another of the accused who are sitting next to him in the dock, Juan Francisco Rosa, accused of having signed a false employment contract for Dimas so that he could obtain the third degree of penitentiary.
"I will be eternally grateful to Juan Francisco"
"I want to tell you that I will be eternally grateful to Don Juan Francisco for his behavior towards me and my family; I wish Lanzarote had ten businessmen like him and the Canary Islands ten wineries like Stratvs", said Dimas Martín before the Court, referring to another of the cases in which Juan Francisco Rosa is accused and awaiting trial.
In addition, on this occasion Dimas not only presented himself as a victim of alleged police and judicial plots to persecute him, but also included Rosa, going so far as to state that the objective of Operation Unión was "to accuse, even falsely, some of the most prestigious businessmen on the island and the most supported politician, true objectives of the unusual operation".
At this point, he lashed out at the UCO agents and described their actions in this case as "disproportionate, unnecessary and unjustified". "Equipped with weapons suitable for confronting a large terrorist commando and acting as a political police force rather than a judicial one, they sowed terror on the island, discrediting its name, its institutions and its companies", Dimas stated before the Court, ignoring the firm convictions that the Unión case has already left, which served to uncover a corruption network that spread for years in the institutions of Lanzarote and in particular in the Arrecife City Council.
In addition, he questioned that the UCO, an elite unit of the Civil Guard based in Madrid, had been used, arguing that "the Civil Guard of Lanzarote or the Canary Islands would have done it more professionally and without causing so much collateral damage". In this regard, it should be recalled that in his conclusions the prosecutor recalled that one of the witnesses and complainants in this case, Isaac Castellano, stated that his father and he went to the UCO because they already had a "bad previous experience", given that they had previously filed a complaint against the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, at the Civil Guard barracks in Costa Teguise, and that complaint was "forgotten in a drawer".
"The prosecutor repeats to me every minute that I am a prisoner"
During his extensive intervention to make use of his last word in the trial, Dimas also described the prosecutor's interventions as "flowery and aggressive" and even questioned that he referred to him as a prisoner, arguing that the same is not done with the people who are in the dock in the "Procés" trial. "They are treated with exquisite education, I have not heard any prosecutor or magistrate call them prisoners while the prosecutor in this case repeats it to me every minute", he questioned. In this regard, it should be noted that the difference in this case is that the Public Prosecutor's Office referred to his status as a prisoner to emphasize that he was directing an alleged criminal network from prison, where he was also not in provisional detention but serving firm sentences.
In addition, despite the conversations, letters and statements that have been heard during the trial, Dimas Martín insisted on denying that they called him "the boss". "The feeling that overwhelms me is that once again I am not being judged for the crimes I may have committed; in conscience I consider that none, although many mistakes for sure. I am being judged for being the historical leader of the PIL, an argument that the Prosecutor's Office uses repeatedly as a weighty element to formulate its accusations, holding me responsible for everything that some of its members may have committed. It does not matter that I have left the presidency of the party since 2002. I am being judged for my frenetic advisory political activity, for intervening in all the matters that I have considered of interest to my island or its capital, criminalizing all my actions", he argued.
"Hunting the defenseless piece"
Even though his lawyer was able to ask him all the questions he considered appropriate during his statement, Dimas questioned the questions that the prosecutor did not ask him - and according to him should have asked him. "I was deprived of being able to personally defend myself before the court against the accusations of collecting commissions, illicit association and its annexes by not interrogating me in a premeditated manner about them", he said in his final plea, also criticizing that "some letters" had not been read and "certain audios" had not been heard, despite the fact that his defense could have claimed it if it had deemed it appropriate.
"I have had the impression that the tactic of the poacher has been used with me, sowing the field with traps to 'hunt' the defenseless piece", he added, continuing in the line of presenting himself as a victim. "I am being judged for who I am, for what I have represented, for the massive popular support I always had, for my vehemence in the exposition and defense of public affairs, for my tone of voice that is considered imperative and for the spurious political interests of those who promoted this operation", he continued, even going so far as to state that "evidence" has been "created" against him.
"When I leave through that door, if the President of the Court does not order otherwise, I will do so with my head as high and my face as serene as I did the first day I appeared before this court in handcuffs for the opportune media lynching and so that all the Canary Islands could see me", concluded the historical leader of the PIL, who is currently in prison for another conviction in the Unión case, although he has been able to attend the last days of the trial in Gran Canaria on his own, as he is enjoying a prison permit.