The Government has rejected granting a pardon to the former secretary of Yaiza, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, who requested this act of clemency after being convicted of crimes of urban planning prevarication and embezzlement of public funds in the Yate case, in which the massive granting of illegal licenses in Playa Blanca was judged. Shortly before the trial began, the accused himself ended up acknowledging the crimes he was accused of and accepted a one-year prison sentence, but later tried to avoid serving it by requesting a pardon.
As a result of this request, last July the Provincial Court agreed to suspend the execution of the sentence until the Council of Ministers ruled, and that response has now arrived. Thus, after receiving notification from the Ministry of Justice that the pardon has been denied, the lawyer of the Second Section of the Provincial Court has issued a statement, dated January 25, ordering Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes to be required to enter prison.
It should be remembered that when the former secretary requested the pardon, both the Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecution, exercised by Carlos Espino as the complainant in the case, opposed the suspension of the execution of the sentence. "It is well known that the criterion of the Public Prosecutor's Office, in crimes framed in corruption, has strongly opposed the granting of the grace of pardon in that the measure supposes a break in the principle of penal legality and separation of powers," stated the Prosecutor's Office's brief, which recalled that the Yate case "constitutes one of the largest cases against urban corruption in the Canary Islands".
Second attempt to avoid prison
Despite this, the Court decided half a year ago to suspend the execution of the sentence, but now it has ordered his imprisonment after the pardon was denied. Thus, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes has seen his second attempt to evade prison frustrated. The first, for which he asked not to serve the sentence because it was less than two years in prison, was already rejected last year by the Provincial Court.
In its resolution, the Court recalled the previous convictions that weighed on Bartolomé Fuentes and also the "seriousness" of the crimes for which he was convicted in this case. "The excessive constructions contrary to urban planning regulations caused an alteration of the territory to the detriment of all citizens," the order stated, which pointed out that the former secretary's actions caused "irreparable damage to the municipality."
In addition, it recalled that the former secretary issued reports "knowing of their manifest illegality, contributing decisively to the final dictation of the decrees granting licenses by the mayor, promoting with his manifestly illegal action a total alteration of the urban reality of the municipality of Yaiza, since hotel constructions and buildings were authorized without any legal basis other than the whim of the mayor", José Francisco Reyes, who also confessed to the crimes and was convicted in this case.
He confessed that he knew that Marina Rubicón and the Playa Blanca Plan were illegal
In the agreement of conformity he reached with the Prosecutor's Office, Bartolomé Fuentes himself acknowledged the account of the facts contained in the indictment and confessed to having committed a crime of prevarication by reporting in favor of two projects that he knew were illegal: the Playa Blanca Partial Plan and the Marina Rubicón marina. He also acknowledged having contributed to embezzling public funds from the City Council, by allowing private trips of the former mayor to be paid for with money from the Yaiza City Council.
"These are crimes committed by public officials, in what is called political corruption, which represent one of the most devastating attacks that can be inflicted on a democratic society, not only from a quantitative point of view: for the economic damage they produce, but also qualitative: by undermining, to almost dissolve, the very principles on which it is based," the Court pointed out, which questioned that Bartolomé Fuentes' defense made no reference in its appeal to the "seriousness of the facts" for which he was convicted and which he himself confessed.
In addition, this also added the risk of recidivism. And it is that although Bartolomé Fuentes was already removed from his position as secretary of Yaiza by a previous conviction, he later began working for another public administration, specifically in the Cabildo of Gran Canaria. "The possibility of committing new crimes is latent, not only because of his status as an active official currently, and because in that capacity he committed the crimes of the three convictions that weigh on him, although one of them is not final, but also because he has a fourth conviction for a crime against road safety, which would prove the variety of crimes practiced by the convicted here," the order stressed.
Regarding the payment of the civil liability to which he was sentenced, in addition to highlighting the "small amount" he had paid, the Court pointed out that it could not "be described as an 'effort'" on his part either. Nor the payment of the fine, "because otherwise it would entail the deprivation of liberty of one day of prison for every two unpaid installments." Finally, regarding the fact that he expressed "the will for social and labor integration", the Court pointed out that "it is a mere expression of intentions by someone who has been convicted on several occasions, for different types of crimes".
