Not in early March, nor in late March, nor in mid-June. Finally, it will be next November when the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, will be in the dock accused of crimes of malfeasance. This is the fourth date set for the trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, which had already been postponed twice at the request of the defendants' lawyers and once again during the Covid-19 crisis.
Now, after the resumption of judicial activity paralyzed during confinement, the Criminal Court Number 3 of Arrecife has already set new dates for the trial, which will begin on November 16 and will last for four days, also including November 17, 23 and 24. In its resolution, the Court refers to the “complexity” of the case, in which 12 years of disqualification are requested for San Ginés and for the other two defendants: the former secretary of the Cabildo, Francisco Perdomo, and the former manager of the Insular Water Council, José Juan Hernández Duchemín.
The new calendar has also been established with the agreement of all parties, who were summoned to an appearance by the magistrate, María Luisa Moreno. Representing the former president of the Cabildo and current spokesperson for CC in the opposition was his lawyer from the beginning of this case, Carlos Viñas, who at the beginning of this year began to share the defense with José María Calero Martínez. This lawyer, an expert in corruption, who has intervened in cases such as the ERE of Andalusia and the Gürtel plot, was hired by San Ginés shortly before this trial began, which was initially scheduled for last March.
The lawyers of the other two defendants in the proceedings also attended the appearance in Court, as well as the lawyer for the popular accusation, exercised by Carlos Meca and Pablo Ramírez, who appeared in the case when they were councilors of Podemos in the Cabildo and now continue to be part as an accusation.
During the appearance, all the lawyers stated “that on the days indicated for the holding of the oral hearing they do not have any procedure that takes priority over the present one and that prevents them from appearing”, so in principle there would be no new postponements, at least at the request of the parties.
He negotiated an agreement that led to the withdrawal of Club Lanzarote as an accusation
The investigation that gave rise to this trial began with a complaint from Club Lanzarote, as the owner of the plants illegally seized by order of Pedro San Ginés. However, after his indictment in this case, San Ginés personally negotiated an agreement with the company, acting as president of the Cabildo, the Consortium and the Water Council. Just after the signing, the company withdrew as an accusation from the criminal case that was directed personally against him.
However, the procedure continued with the popular accusation, after Judge Jerónimo Alonso closed the investigation seeing indications of a crime to take it to trial. In its qualification brief, the popular accusation maintains that the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant was carried out because it was “the only way that responded to the whim of Mr. San Ginés and his desire to benefit Canal Gestión Lanzarote above respect for current legality and private property”, since he snatched those plants from Club Lanzarote to illegally hand them over to the Madrid company.
In addition, the letter recalls that this is not the first time that San Ginés has been accused of benefiting Canal. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands also ordered the review of the contract award by which Canal de Isabel II took over the management of water on the island, considering it proven that the “specifications were altered” in “benefit” of this Madrid company.
The investigating judge saw the crimes as "provisionally proven"
Both in that award of the contract and later in the seizure of the desalination plant, the lawyer Ignacio Calatayud intervened, who charged as an advisor to Canal Gestión while also advising San Ginés. In his case, he was also charged in the case, although the actions against him were filed by an order issued by the now former judge of the Provincial Court Salvador Alba, who shortly after was convicted of serious crimes of corruption in the exercise of his position.
That order from Alba, in addition, was decisive for the Prosecutor's Office to withdraw from the procedure, since it understood that if it could not formulate an accusation against the one who was pointed out as the "ideologue" of the seizure, neither could it do so against the rest. However, the prosecutor supported the case reaching trial with the popular accusation.
For his part, the investigating judge himself pointed out that Pedro San Ginés “had the advice of Calatayud at all times”, who at that time worked at the same time for Canal Gestión, which is the company to which the plants were handed over. “In his capacity as a lawyer, he tried, in some way, to give some legal coverage to the prevaricating resolution,” the magistrate pointed out, recalling that Calatayud prepared a report after San Ginés carried out the seizure. That report drafted “a posteriori” is the only one that appears in the file, since there is no prior one that endorsed or proposed that measure ordered by the then president.
“It can be considered provisionally proven that the investigated, Pedro San Ginés Gutiérrez, in his capacity as president of the Insular Water Council, carried out his personal will, departing from the law”, the investigating judge pointed out in that order, who was the one who urged to formulate the accusatory writings, understanding that the case should reach trial. Regarding José Juan Hernández Duchemín and Francisco Perdomo, the magistrate concluded that they provided “a conscious collaboration to the commission of the criminal offense”.