The former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, managed this Monday to delay the start of his first criminal trial again, but the question one day later remains whether the hearing can finally start next week. For the moment, the judge of the Criminal Court Number 3 of Arrecife maintains the appointments that were scheduled for the following days - May 24 and 25 and June 1 - but everything indicates that the question will not be revealed until this Friday.
According to what La Voz has confirmed from the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, that day is the deadline that the Provincial Court has given to the prosecution and the defenses to pronounce on the last incident of nullity presented by San Ginés' defense, to try to avoid the trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant.
Until it has those writings, the Court cannot issue its resolution. Therefore, if any of the parties decides to exhaust the deadlines, it will be difficult for that pronouncement to arrive in time for next Monday, which would prevent "saving" the dates that were already set.
In case of having to cancel them, the trial could take months again, until new available dates are found, since there are also four days scheduled to hold the hearing.
Asks for a nullity with arguments that have already been rejected
Regarding the arguments raised by San Ginés in that incident of nullity, they are actually the same ones that have already been repeatedly rejected by both the Court of Instruction and different sections of the Provincial Court, which ratified that the hearing should be held.
In fact, the trial began a year ago, although on the second day San Ginés' defense managed to have it suspended, alleging then -with the hearing already started- that the judge was not competent to judge the case.
That forced a new pronouncement from the Provincial Court, which overturned San Ginés' arguments and ordered the trial to continue in the same court. Afterwards, his defense chose to recuse the judge, which again delayed the procedure, and cost Pedro San Ginés a fine of 1,000 euros for "bad faith".
Finally, once all the appeals were resolved, the magistrate issued the order setting the new dates, and that was the resolution that San Ginés then appealed. That appeal has also already been resolved and rejected, this time by the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court, but then the former president's defense presented the incident of nullity against that resolution, which is the one that is now pending resolution. And based on that, last Friday he asked for the hearing to be suspended.
The same thing he has "been arguing from the first moment"
In a statement sent this Monday through the official press office of the CC group in the Cabildo, San Ginés himself acknowledges that the argument he uses in that incident of nullity is the same one that he has been raising for years, and that has never prospered before any instance. Now, the intention is for the Court to declare its own resolution null, in which it rejected San Ginés' last appeal.
"The incident of nullity before the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court was presented on April 19 because my defense understands, as we have been arguing from the first moment, that there is no formally legitimized accusation in the case at hand, that is, that the natural persons who filed the accusation never appeared as part of the procedure nor is there a resolution that accepts them as such and, therefore, they are not part of the procedure," insists the former president, who considers that the one who appeared was the Podemos group in the Cabildo, and not the people who made it up then, who are the ones who continue as accusation.
However, both the court of instruction and different sections of the Provincial Court have already repeatedly denied that thesis. In fact, the appearance of a political group in an institution could never have been admitted, since it has no legal entity outside of it (unlike what happens with a political party). Thus, those who appear as appearing are former councilors Carlos Meca, Pablo Ramírez and Plácida Martín, and all the magistrates who have ruled so far, as well as the Public Prosecutor's Office, have concluded that they are entitled to exercise the popular accusation.
Reproaches from the Court for "unfounded" appeals
The appeals filed in this last year by San Ginés and the attempts to suspend the previous trial scheduled in 2021, even appealing to the pandemic, are added to all those he presented during the instruction.
"This party is not unaware of the limited possibilities of success of the present appeal that intends that the Court rectify its own criteria. Therefore, the initiative could be described as useless, futile, unnecessary and even impertinent," his own defense acknowledged in one of those appeals, presented three years ago.
Afterwards, he received warnings and reproaches from the Court, questioning that they were presenting "unfounded" appeals, trying to get the Chamber to rule again on aspects that it had already resolved.
In fact, in addition to having been sentenced to a fine a few months ago for bad faith when trying to challenge the judge, San Ginés had also previously been imposed the payment of the costs generated with one of the appeals.
From the beginning of this procedure, San Ginés' lawyer in the case was Carlos Viña, but two years ago he decided to hire a lawyer expert in corruption, José María Calero Martínez, who has intervened in cases such as the ERE of Andalusia and the Gürtel plot, and was the one who managed to suspend the trial a year ago, threatening the judge with a possible complaint for prevarication if she continued it.
Calero had already been Ignacio Calatayud's lawyer in this same case, when he was investigated together with Pedro San Ginés; since Calatayud was the one who "advised" him in the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, while at the same time he worked for Canal Gestión, which was the company benefited with that illegal measure.
Finally, the lawyer was dismissed in an order signed by the then judge Salvador Alba, who is currently removed from his position by a corruption conviction. However, now Ignacio Calatayud is being investigated in the new case opened against San Ginés, where crimes of embezzlement of public funds and bribery are being investigated.
