The General Council of the Judiciary has requested bodyguards for the judge investigating Pedro San Ginés for corruption, after receiving threats from the "environment of those investigated" in that case, according to the newspaper Canariasahora. The magistrate has also requested reinforcements and a team from the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard, given the magnitude of the case against the former president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.
In the procedure, which remains under summary secrecy, alleged crimes of embezzlement and bribery are being investigated, related to the millionaire payments received by the lawyer Ignacio Calatayud under the presidency of San Ginés. In addition, among other possible ramifications, the focus has been placed on the house where the former president has resided for years, which belonged to Calatayud's father-in-law, the lawyer Felipe Fernández Camero, who is awaiting trial for another corruption case.
After his home was searched within this judicial operation, Pedro San Ginés himself revealed that the magistrate is investigating how he made the purchase of that house. San Ginés was in the house for years supposedly paying rent, and then acquired it, on a date he did not want to specify. In the declaration of assets he made as a public official of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés did not report that he was the owner of that property, and it is not registered in his name in the Property Registry either.
The judge asks for agents not assigned to detachments on the island
The decision to request police protection from the Ministry of the Interior for the head of the Court of Instruction 2 of Arrecife, Jerónimo Alonso, was adopted at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the General Council of the Judiciary held this Thursday, as revealed by Canarias Ahora.
In addition, the magistrate also requested that a UCO team be made available to the court, noting that the investigation requires specialized agents not assigned to the island's detachments.
The Judiciary will also address the Government of the Canary Islands to provide the Court of Instruction 2 of Arrecife with more officials and a specific procedural management team for that macro-case.
The judge has already suffered other threats and was even followed by a detective
San Ginés has two other cases open in this same Court, and is awaiting trial for one more, related to the illegal seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, to hand it over to Canal Gestión. That trial, which he managed to suspend a year and a half ago, will begin again on May 16. Ignacio Calatayud was also charged in that procedure, as he advised the president on the seizure, while at the same time working for Canal Gestión.
Later, an order from Judge Salvador Alba allowed Calatayud to be removed from the case. Alba, who belonged to the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court, was convicted shortly after for corruption in the exercise of his office.
Judge Jerónimo Alonso has already reported on other occasions having suffered threats or coercion. In fact, coinciding with the investigation he was then carrying out into the desalination plant case, he was followed by a private detective, who took photographs during his private life.
The controversial Association of Jurists Jiménez de Asúa then filed a complaint against him with the Council of the Judiciary, which was dismissed, as Canarias Ahora recalls. That association of lawyers, created after the Unión case, dedicated itself to appearing as a supposed accusation in corruption cases related to defendants such as Felipe Fernández Camero, Luis Lleó and Juan Francisco Rosa, and in most cases ended up being expelled. According to the Prosecutor's Office, it acted as "a Trojan horse with bastard interests", trying to blow up the cases from within.