The still acting president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, will use for his defense an expert he hired through the Water Consortium, Manuel Rebollo Puig, who has now requested that he testify in the trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant. This is stated in the defense brief that San Ginés has already presented for the trial, which includes the list of witnesses and experts he requests to testify at the hearing, and among whom is this professor of Administrative Law at the University of Córdoba.
It should be remembered that the Podemos group in the Cabildo filed a complaint almost a year ago for an alleged crime of embezzlement of public funds for the hiring of this jurist, since it argued that he was commissioned a report that has not had any "public utility" and that it only appears to have been used by San Ginés within this criminal case opened against him. In fact, the president commissioned it a few months after declaring as an accused, he presented it to the Court a few days after receiving it and now he has requested that Rebollo Puig be summoned as an expert for the trial.
In addition to this report, Podemos also denounced that the Consortium had commissioned another one to the also professor Blanca Lozano Cutanda, who works at the University of the Basque Country and had already been an expert witness in the Stratvs case, hired by Juan Francisco Rosa. In this case, this jurist received more than 17,500 from this public entity for a report that San Ginés presented in the Court for his defense in this procedure, but that it is not recorded that it has had any other utility.
Also uses the agreement with Club Lanzarote in his defense
In addition to using reports contracted through the Water Consortium, which he then presided over and paid for with public money, San Ginés has also used in his defense the agreement he personally negotiated with Club Lanzarote. Thanks to that agreement, he managed to get the company to withdraw from the contentious proceedings that were still open, and it also ended up withdrawing as a private prosecution in this criminal case against him.
"In the present case, the control of the legality of the administrative act was already exercised by contentious jurisdiction, responding to the judicial protection required and putting an end to the conflict", San Ginés now argues in his defense brief, in which he insists on defending the legality of the seizure. However, what happened with those processes is that they did not continue due to the withdrawal of the plaintiff, who had obtained a strong sentence in the first instance.
In that ruling, the Administrative Court Number 4 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria annulled the seizure concluding that it was an "extreme", "burdensome", "disproportionate" and "illegal" measure, thus coinciding with the criteria of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, which had already dictated precautionary measures a year earlier annulling the seizure and ordering the return of the plants. Afterwards, that ruling of the Court was appealed and did not become final because San Ginés managed to get Club to withdraw from the lawsuit thanks to that agreement that he now uses in his defense brief.
No sanctions for the alleged faults that motivated the file
Among other things, this agreement meant that all the files opened to Club Lanzarote were closed, which currently continues to operate the plants and issue water bills to the residents of Montaña Roja. Now, despite the fact that everything ended without even a sanction to the company, San Ginés insists in his defense brief that he ordered the seizure -without a court order and without a single written report proposing or endorsing this measure- due to the seriousness of the situation. However, the documents that he himself has provided in his defense reflect that he knew about this situation at least in 2010 and did not act until four years later, when Canal de Isabel II had just taken over the management of water on the island.
It was then that San Ginés decided to open a sanctioning file to Club Lanzarote for three minor and one less serious faults, but in the same decree he also ordered the seizure, despite the fact that there is not a single law that protects this precautionary measure, as ruled by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands. That same day, the president handed over the plants to Canal, in a measure that was later annulled by the Courts.
As for the possible faults in which the company could have incurred, they were not sanctioned by that agreement negotiated by San Ginés. Nor have measures been adopted after the reports he commissioned after the seizure. Based on those reports, the president filed a lawsuit in which he accused Club Lanzarote of up to five crimes, as well as of having put health and the environment at risk. That complaint was dismissed shortly after by the Courts, but the president has also incorporated those reports into his defense brief.
Asks Calatayud to testify as a witness
As for the witnesses, San Ginés has asked that, among others, the lawyer Ignacio Calatayud testify, who was also charged in this case but was 'uncharged' by the controversial judge Salvador Alba, who is currently removed from his position and awaiting trial for serious crimes in the exercise of his work as a magistrate. The appeals of the other three defendants in the case fell to other sections of the Provincial Court, which dismissed them and endorsed the instruction.
In his defense brief, the still president of the Cabildo insists that he decided to seize the Montaña Roja desalination plant "previously advised" by "jurists of recognized prestige" -although he only cites the "external lawyer Ignacio Calatayud Prats"-, and by the secretary of the Cabildo, Pancho Perdomo, who is still accused along with him in the case. However, neither of them issued a written report endorsing that measure, which was adopted without judicial authorization and which was later annulled and declared illegal by the Courts.
In addition, when he testified as an accused in this case, Pancho Perdomo relativized his "verbal advice" to San Ginés, stressing that they only had a brief meeting in which they talked about the issue and that he did not believe that "with his advice he was forming the will of the president", since he "had his private advisors", referring to Ignacio Calatayud, who will finally only testify as a witness.
In addition to that prior "verbal" advice, Calatayud prepared a legal report that was made "a posteriori", and which is the only one on record endorsing the seizure. And all this while working for Canal Gestión, which was the company to which the seized plants were handed over, and who was thus billing the water to the residents until the Justice annulled this measure.
"Everyone knew he worked for Canal"
"I don't know", San Ginés replied when the judge asked him if Ignacio Calatayud worked for Canal while advising him on the seizure. However, the lawyer later declared before the magistrate that "everyone knew that he worked for Canal Gestión Lanzarote" and that "he never hid it". In addition to having repeatedly hired Ignacio Calatayud as a lawyer and advisor -who also played a key role in the process to award the water to this Madrid-based company-, Pedro San Ginés has also stated that they have a personal relationship of friendship.
Finally, from this case it was learned that this lawyer charged at least 116,000 euros from Canal in less than two years and was hired by the company when the seizure occurred, in which he also actively participated. In fact, in addition to the advice he gave to San Ginés, he was present during the execution of the seizure, which was also attended by the then manager of Canal Gestión, who, according to his statement, was the one who called the locksmith.