More than a decade after starting the construction of Stratvs on a farm that was not his property, Juan Francisco Rosa called one of the owners to try to buy his share. This is what José Juan Negrín Ramos declared this Monday in court, who assured that the businessman had "never" contacted him until then, nor his brothers or his mother, who also testified as a witness last week.
According to his statement, that first call occurred after they sent a requirement to another of the accused in this case, Miguel Ángel Armas Matallana, who owned another part of the farm and who had partnered with Rosa to start this work.
"He offered us 6,000 euros with promissory notes of one thousand euros each, but I didn't want promissory notes," José Juan Negrín recounted, specifying that not even then, with the winery already finished and inaugurated, the businessman paid them for their part of the land. It was "seven or eight years later", at the end of 2018, when Rosa ended up buying that land from them, given the imminence of this trial, and for an amount more than ten times higher than what he had offered them years before. As a result of that and two other purchase agreements, all the Negríns withdrew from the case, in which they were present as a private prosecution for the usurpation of their land. However, this is one of the crimes for which Rosa is still accused, and for which he is being tried in this proceeding.
"My uncle could not represent me because it was my property"
Regarding the version of Juan Francisco Rosa, who assured that he had a "verbal" agreement with another member of the family, the now deceased Domingo Negrín, and that he had bought the land "by word of mouth", the witness has denied it. "My uncle would be in charge of selling his part, I suppose, but not mine," he responded to questions from the defense. Furthermore, although he admitted that "due to his way of being" it is likely that at some point his uncle spoke "on behalf of everyone", he stressed that "he could not do it". "He could not represent me because it was my property," he insisted.
In this regard, he explained that it was Domingo Negrín who "had access to Juan Francisco Rosa" and who started the conversations with the businessman, but in view of the fact that the agreement was not reached, his mother, his brothers and he decided to take action to claim their rights over the land that had been occupied with Stratvs.
"At first, no lawyer wanted to take charge. This man had a lot of power", "everyone made an excuse not to take charge of the matter. It is very difficult to go against this man", his mother, Olga María Ramos, declared last week.
Blas Noda denied him information in the Cadastre
The lawyer of Urban Transparency has also asked the witness about the visit he made to the Cadastre when he became aware of the occupation of the farm, since among those accused in the case is the one who was then in charge of that office, Blas Noda. "He didn't give me information," José Juan Negrín recalled, who went to the Cadastre with a copy of the deed of the farm. "He told me that it was the farm where Stratvs was located, that it did not match the one I had and that he could not give me the information," he added.
Precisely, Blas Noda is accused, among other things, of having made the change of ownership of the farm in 2013, putting it in Rosa's name. During the day this Monday, at the request of his defense, another Cadastre worker, Fernando Alexis Melián, testified as a witness, who began by stating that when they assumed those functions they received "minimal training" to start making changes of ownership. "They gave us three basic knowledge of what we had to do," he declared.
In addition, when asked by Noda's lawyer, he assured that even if the surface of a farm did not coincide with what appeared in the Cadastre, "the change could be made" if the boundaries coincided. "In many farms the registry reality does not coincide with the cadastral reality," he maintained, pointing out that the Cadastre "is only used for tax purposes."
In addition, he justified that his colleague did not provide information to the owner of the farm, alleging that his name did not appear in the cadastral file, and also that he made the change of ownership on Saturday. In this regard, when asked by Noda's lawyer, he stated that it was "usual" for them to work on weekends to "get the work done."
Other three witnesses
During Monday's session, the owner of a farm that Rosa bought in Uga also testified, where, according to the prosecution, the rofe that was illegally taken from the Barranco del Obispo was stockpiled with the construction of Stratvs. In addition, a local police officer from Yaiza appeared, now retired, who was the one who delivered a notification ordering the work to be stopped when the work was still being carried out, and which was never complied with afterwards.
Finally, a Cabildo worker who was assigned to the Environment area also testified as a witness, and who issued a report on the planting of some palm trees next to the winery, years after its inauguration.
After this ninth day of the trial held this Monday, the hearing will now continue on March 3, this time in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Several sessions will be held there with new statements from witnesses and experts who do not reside in Lanzarote, although the island will also host sessions again in mid-March.
