The private prosecution in the case of the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, exercised by the Podemos group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote, has requested 12 years of disqualification for the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, and the same penalty for Francisco Perdomo and José Juan Hernández Duchemín, secretary and manager of the Island Water Council, respectively. This is stated in the indictment that has already been presented in the Courts, according to the party, and that has been prepared by the legal team that has represented the private prosecution in this procedure.
The writing, in which the opening of oral trial against the three accused for a crime of administrative prevarication is requested, recounts "the facts that led to the illegal seizure of private plants, outside the law and omitting all mandatory procedures", to deliver them later to Canal Gestión.
"The adopted resolution lacks any legal logic, since it is inappropriate and absolutely disproportionate to seize a private installation as a precautionary measure subject to a sanctioning file that, at most, could impose a fine of 7,200 euros", underlines the indictment, which concludes that the seizure was carried out because it was "the only way that gave an answer to the whim of Mr. San Ginés and his desire to benefit Canal Gestión Lanzarote above respect for current legislation and private property".
"Huge benefits" for Canal "at the cost of infringing the law"
In its provisional conclusions after the investigation of the case was closed, the private prosecution maintains that the president of the Cabildo and the manager and secretary of the Water Council agreed to "deliver by force and abuse of authority the management of the water cycle of the tourist center of Montaña Roja to Canal Gestión Lanzarote S.A.U., so that it would obtain huge benefits at the cost of flagrantly and grossly infringing current legislation".
In addition, as proof of these benefits, it highlights that "during the year that Canal Gestión Lanzarote S.A.U. managed the seized plants, until justice put an end to such nonsense, it invoiced one billion more liters of water". Specifically, the water distributed by this company went from 12,943,938 cubic meters in 2014 to 14,302,270 in 2015, according to data published on the website of the Data Center of the Island Council of Lanzarote.
"Mr. San Ginés complied with his will by arbitrarily adopting a precautionary measure not provided for in sector legislation, without any time limit, through a resolution issued without essential procedures of the procedure (such as a hearing with the interested parties or the lack of a prior legal report), violating the right of defense of the administered and adopted without being the competent body to do so", warns the qualification letter.
The TSJC ruling, proof of the "accumulation of illegalities to which San Ginés lends himself"
In addition, the private prosecution has requested that the recent ruling issued by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands be incorporated into the procedure, which warned of the irregularities committed by the president of the Cabildo in the tender for the award of the integral water cycle to Canal de Isabel II and which ordered the review of that procedure, considering it proven that "substantial modifications" were introduced in the specifications "for the benefit" of this company.
"The accumulation of irregularities to which Mr. San Ginés lends himself to favor the business of Canal Gestión Lanzarote S.A.U. has been revealed by the TSJC from its origin, that is, from the celebration of the negotiated tender with publicity by which the management of the integral water cycle is granted to the subsidiary of Canal Isabel II", underlines the indictment.
A posteriori reports from a three-way legal advisor
The writing also questions the "neutrality and impartiality" of the report prepared days after the seizure by the lawyer and personal friend of the president, Ignacio Calatayud, who worked for Canal Gestión while supposedly defending and advising the Island Water Council as an external lawyer. This report, which was intended to justify the seizure of the desalination plant a posteriori, was ratified by the secretary of the Council, Francisco Perdomo, despite the fact that he himself had warned San Ginés and the rest of the members of the Island Water Council two years earlier that this body did not have the power to order the closure or closure of private desalination plants, but only to initiate files or impose sanctions, as stated in the minutes of the meeting held by the Council on April 14, 2014, which is also incorporated into the procedure.
However, when the seizure was carried out, the private prosecution recalls that the secretary approved the report drafted by Calatayud, "without warning of the illegality of the measure adopted or the incompatibility incurred by the lawyer", who combined his work for Canal Gestión with advising Pedro San Ginés. "This subsequent action expressly highlights the effort made to try to invest the seizure with legality, and evidences the knowledge of the illegality of the measure adopted", underlines the private prosecution.
"These acts grossly and flagrantly infringe the principles that govern the administrative procedure, and allowed in a serious and unmotivated manner the commission of serious violations of the law that cannot be explained with a minimally reasonable technical legal argument", concludes the writing, which sets a request for a penalty of twelve years of special disqualification for employment or public office and for the exercise of the right to passive suffrage.
