The Sixth Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas has upheld the appeal against the sentence that condemned Antonio Lorenzo and Vicente Jesús Bartolomé for the Costa Roja partial plan. The Chamber, presided over by Judge Emilio Moya, thus revoked the ruling against the then head of the Technical Office of Yaiza and the then secretary of the City Council, respectively, who were convicted of urban planning prevarication.
The Criminal Court number three of Arrecife condemned on February 12, 2023, the former mayor of Yaiza Francisco Reyes, the former secretary of the City Council Vicente Jesús Bartolomé and the then head of the Technical Office Antonio Lorenzo as authors of the aforementioned crime. The events date back to August 31, 2006, when they held these positions, the entity Residencial Costa Roja SL requested a municipal license to build 45 two-story buildings in Playa Blanca, with 1,012 homes, 228 premises and 2,559 parking spaces in 182,283 square meters in the municipality of Yaiza. This plot was classified as "urban reserve", which is currently equivalent to "non-sectorized developable land".
According to the Criminal Court's conclusion, the project was "contrary to the legal system" because it was not included as urban land in the municipal planning and it was intended to give it a residential use when it had a tourist allocation. However, Vicente Bartolomé, as municipal secretary, "limited himself to generically listing the legal precepts [...] giving the appearance of legality to what was not". The Chamber stated that "intentionally, because if the correct report had been issued, it would have been emphatically unfavorable".
In this line, it pointed out that Antonio Lorenzo, as head of the Technical Office, also "failed to fulfill his duty" by not expressing the illegal nature of the project. Meanwhile, the mayor José Francisco Reyes was "fully aware of the illegality of the requested license and that the previous reports lacked the legally required content". In addition, ignoring the intervention of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands.
The convicted Vicente Jesús Bartolomé and Antonio Lorenzo filed an appeal with the Provincial Court alleging "error in the assessment of the evidence" and accusing the Chamber that issued the conviction of making a "biased interpretation". For his part, former mayor Francisco Reyes accepted the conviction. Now, the Chamber concluded that "the evidentiary assessment made by the Criminal Judge does not allow declaring the elements of the crime of urban planning prevarication proven".
Given this resolution, no appeal can be filed.
