The unelected senator of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands Pedro San Ginés (Canarian Coalition) has sat this Thursday morning on the bench of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court accused by the Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecution of the crimes of false testimony and false accusation.
In his report, the prosecutor has asked to distinguish between lies and error, because, in his opinion, here San Ginés acted with "manifest disregard for the truth" and did so "consciously and willingly", both in his police and judicial statements, because the dismissal order made it clear that "there was no indication whatsoever" of crime since "the works were necessary and the invoices correct".
The private prosecution, which represents the businessman's family, has highlighted that the senator was guided by "spurious and personal interests" to "wrongfully harm a political rival" and implicated the businessman with data that he "falsified".
San Ginés faces a request from the Prosecutor's Office for a year and a half in prison for alleged crimes of false testimony and false accusation.
The defense of San Ginés insists on accusing Antonio Gonzalez
For its part, the defense has requested acquittal because the senator acted "in the certainty that he was telling the truth" and did not provide false data, while also emphasizing that "a dismissal order does not imply that what has been reported is false".
For his part, the senator and former president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés (CC), has denied having filed a false accusation and committed perjury when he reported a businessman and a PSOE councilor for irregularities in public contracts: "I did not lie, I did it convinced."
The procedure was initiated by the complaint of the family of businessman Antonio González, already deceased, from the company Climafrical, who was investigated for alleged irregularities in a public contracting process with the Centers of Art, Culture and Tourism (CACT) of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, in a case that ended up filed ten years later. González died without having seen the case against him definitively filed.
San Ginés appeared on the night of Wednesday, November 11, 2009, before the Civil Guard, a few days after acceding to the presidency of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, to report that González and the former CEO of the CACT, Carlos Espino (PSOE), were skipping all procedures in the awarding of contracts, pointing out that the businessman was a member of the PSOE. Before that complaint, Carlos Espino had uncovered the largest corruption plot judged to date in the Canary Islands, the Unión case.
"I did not fail the truth, I did it convinced, I have at all times fulfilled my duty of control and good use of public funds," the senator has pointed out, who has stressed that he maintains his "firm belief" that irregularities occurred in the public entity, despite the fact that the case was archived.
San Ginés, who has attributed this cause to Espino's "reprisal" for not conforming with the dismissal of the procedure, has explained that he intervened upon noticing "overpricing", because there were more than 300,000 euros from Climafrical "that had no contractual coverage", and that the procedures had been systematically skipped.
Carlos Espino accuses San Ginés of wanting to expel him from politics
On the contrary, Espino has accused San Ginés of filing a false complaint to end his political career. "The sole objective was to invalidate me and politically destroy me" because "all procedures were done according to legality" and the senator "knew that no crime had been committed", because "he had access to all that documentation, he had certain knowledge".
Furthermore, he has said that "there was no preferential treatment" towards González and that "not at all" his company was hired because of its closeness to the PSOE, making it clear that he had already worked for the administration and that he now presented the cheapest offer.
The businessman's children have regretted the damage and the "terrible consequences" that their father suffered after Sanginés' complaint, given that "no one else wanted to contract with him" accusing him of "thief", to the point that it led him to bankruptcy and he had to close the company.
His father learned about the case file when he was in the hospital and with this procedure, they have added, "they seek to honor his memory".
