The president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, declared this Wednesday before the judge of the Court of Instruction number 2 of La Laguna as investigated in the Grúas case. A statement that has lasted for two and a half hours, in which Clavijo has not answered the questions of the private prosecution.
Fernando Clavijo has declared between 9:30 and 12 hours and has come accompanied by his new lawyer, José Antonio Choclán Montalvo, whom he has just hired for his defense. Choclán is the lawyer of the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa both in the Stratvs case and in the Unión case and exercises the defense in some of the main cases of corruption open throughout the country, such as the Gürtel case. In addition, among others, he has represented Cristiano Ronaldo.
The accusation in the Grúas Case is represented by the municipal group in the City Council of La Laguna Por Tenerife-Nueva Canarias (XTF-NC), who denounced irregularities in the management of Clavijo between 2003 and 2014, in his stages as Councilor for Citizen Security and as mayor of the Tenerife municipality, related to the municipal crane service.
In that period, said service was awarded, but later the company began to drag significant debts even with the workers and to breach the conditions of the contract, and what the City Council did was grant a loan of 120,000 euros, despite the fact that the auditor issued a report against this operation. A objection that was lifted based on two external reports that Clavijo hired.
Two appeals by Clavijo that were rejected
In its day, the Court already saw indications to summon Clavijo as accused, but referred the case to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands due to the condition of aforado of the president. However, after the reform of the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands, which eliminates the aforamientos, the TSJC returned the case to the Court of Instruction, a decision against which the president of the Government of the Canary Islands filed an appeal, which was dismissed.
After that decision, the magistrate of the Court of Instruction number 2 of La Laguna summoned Clavijo to testify as investigated on March 15, but finally suspended said statement since, before an appeal of cassation of the Canarian president, considered that it was still at stake who was the body that has the competence to continue with the procedure. However, the TSJC refused to admit said appeal, so the president of the Canarian Government was summoned again to declare this April 17.
