The businessman Juan Francisco Rosa finally testified this Friday as accused in the Kikoland case, more than three years after the investigation began in the Court of Instruction Number 4 of Arrecife. The proceedings were opened in December 2017, following a complaint filed by the then councilors of Podemos in the Cabildo, but it was not until 2019 when the head of the Court, Ricardo Fiestras, agreed to summon the investigated.
Since then, the statements have been suspended up to three times, the last one on January 7. Finally, Rosa appeared this Friday before Judge Fiestras and answered questions from the lawyer of the popular prosecution, exercised by Carlos Meca, Pablo Ramírez and Griselda Martínez, in a hearing that was not attended by the Public Prosecutor.
This Friday, the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, and the former administrator of the company Getsu No Denwa, Juan Luis Lorenzo, were also summoned. In the case of Reyes, once again he did not appear, because he is serving another sentence in the Tahíche penitentiary and his lawyer had not notified the Court of this circumstance, so a new date will have to be set.
As for the four investigated in the case, the former secretary of Yaiza Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, is also serving a sentence in Tahíche and appeared last Wednesday by videoconference from prison, although he availed himself of his right not to testify. Both Reyes and Bartolomé Fuentes were convicted in the Yate case, in which they confessed to having granted licenses for the benefit of Juan Francisco Rosa knowing of their illegality, and the former mayor even admitted to having received bribes from several businessmen.
For his part, Juan Luis Lorenzo has declared this Friday as investigated, although he has alleged that he was only administrator of Getsu No Denwa, and that he knew nothing about legal issues or the matters for which he was being asked.
Free land transfer, for 50 years and without reports
This company, which was later absorbed by Princesa Yaiza S.A., was the one that signed the agreement with the Yaiza City Council in 2004, under the Mayoralty of José Francisco Reyes, by which the City Council ceded three plots of 30,000 square meters, without even establishing the payment of a fee. That land of the City Council was to be used for public green areas, but instead it was occupied by private companies, which obtained that land for free and with a concession for 50 years. In one of the plots, Juan Francisco Rosa installed the Kikoland, as a children's and leisure area attached to one of his hotels, the Princesa Yaiza, also declared illegal by the Justice.
That agreement ended up being annulled by the City Council in 2016 based on a devastating opinion from the Canary Islands Advisory Council, and the courts have rejected all the appeals filed by Rosa since then, confirming that that transfer was illegal, among other things because not even any administrative procedure was carried out previously. "It is not only the absence of legal, technical or audit reports, but also the slightest procedure for achieving the agreement", stated the judgment of the Court, which was later fully ratified by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
As a result of the opinion of the Advisory Council and the fact that what had surrounded that illegal occupation of public land became public, the then councilors of Podemos in the Cabildo decided to file a lawsuit in the Courts, so that criminal responsibilities for these events could also be clarified. That lawsuit was directed against Reyes, Rosa, Bartolomé Fuentes and Lorenzo, and also against the companies Hotel Princesa Yaiza, Salmepa and Getsu No Denwa. Judge Ricardo Fiestras admitted it for processing in December 2017, but did not summon the investigated until two years later. The statements were set for February 2020, but ended up being suspended. And the same thing happened when new dates were set for October of that year and for last January.
"Slow" investigation, according to the defense
During this time, Rosa's defense has tried on several occasions to have the case dismissed, alleging, among other things, the lack of progress in the investigation and the fact that it has been extended twice. “The fact that the investigation, until now, has been slow, in the opinion of the defense, is something that is not an obstacle to maintaining the origin of the extension of the investigation. It may justify in its day that the application of a mitigating circumstance of undue delays is claimed, but it should not lead us to rule out, without further ado, the origin of continuing with the current investigation”, responded the Second Section of the Provincial Court, in the order with which he rejected one of his appeals, which the Prosecutor's Office also opposed.
Until this Friday, the only statements that had taken place were those of two witnesses, who were councilors in the opposition when the events occurred. It was last November when the one who was the spokesperson for the PSOE in Yaiza, Marcial Valiente, and the one for the PP, José Carlos Rojas, and confirmed that the agreement was taken to the Plenary without reports, and also that in the session they warned that it was harmful to the City Council. To them has now been added the former mayor, Gladys Acuña, who was then a councilor of the PIL in the opposition. Her statement had also been suspended three months ago and she finally testified this Friday as a witness.
Acuña, who succeeded Reyes as Mayor of Yaiza, has also been convicted of benefiting this same businessman, with the granting of the activity license to the Stratvs winery, despite its illegality. As in the Yate case, in the first piece of the Stratvs case, the politicians and technicians who intervened in the granting of illegal permits to Rosa were convicted, but not the businessman.
