The Supreme Court has confirmed the sentence of one of the main parts of the Unión case, in which the historical leader of the PIL, Dimas Martín, and nine other people were convicted of crimes of illicit association, bribery, embezzlement, prevarication and fraud. The ruling rejects the appeals filed by Martín and two other defendants - former PIL councilor Antonio Machín and businessman Manuel Gregorio Reina Fabre - making the convictions final.
The sentence that has now been ratified, and that was issued three years ago, pointed to Dimas Martín as "the true "mastermind" of the corrupt plot, centered on the Arrecife City Council, where his party was governing at that time. In his case, he must serve a sentence of seven years and five months in prison and 22 years of disqualification, and pay a fine of 4,200 euros and another of 219,000 euros, corresponding to the money he received in bribes from various businessmen. In addition, jointly with other defendants, he will have to return 129,985 euros to the City Council, which were embezzled with the payment of false invoices.
The penalty is even greater for the former Councilor for Parks and Gardens, Antonio Machín, sentenced to 8 years and one day in prison, 18 of disqualification and a fine of 95,000 euros, along with the obligation to jointly return 79,406 euros to the Arrecife City Council.
The other former PIL councilor who sat on the bench again in this piece, Ubaldo Becerra, must serve 4 years and two months in prison and pay a total fine of 70,900 euros, along with the return of the embezzled money. In his case, the penalty was reduced by applying his confession and "collaboration with Justice" as mitigating factors.
Along with Becerra, in this trial, the former Arrecife auditor, Carlos Sáenz, the former head of the Technical Office, Rafael Arrocha, the engineer Antonio Cárdenas and some of the businessmen accused of receiving fraudulent awards or collecting false invoices in exchange for bribes also confessed.
"The corrupt black history that plagued Arrecife"
"This goes beyond the very concept of corruption. Everything had to pass through the Tahíche filter, through the prison gaze of an inmate. There is no article in the Penal Code that reflects this criminal level, this submission," said prosecutor Javier Ródenas when presenting his conclusions during the trial, describing the "corrupt black history that plagued the Arrecife City Council between 2007 and 2009."
For Carlos Sáenz, who already has several convictions behind him, the penalty is three and a half years in prison and absolute disqualification for a period of five years, in addition to the obligation to jointly return 129,985 euros to the City Council.
As for Rafael Arrocha, who has also been in prison for a previous conviction, in this case he is only imposed a fine of 2,160 euros, for the crime he acknowledged of revealing reserved information. Also Antonio Cárdenes accepted a sentence only of fine, in his case of 4,225 euros, for a crime of taking advantage of reserved information.
Four businessmen convicted
Regarding the businessmen who collected fraudulent invoices from the Consistory, the sentence condemns both those who confessed during the trial and those who tried to deny the facts, reducing the penalties in the case of those who admitted the crimes.
Thus, Antonio Gómez Ruiz is imposed a penalty of one year in prison, three of disqualification and a fine of 10,000 euros for crimes of bribery and embezzlement of public funds; Manuel Gregorio Reina Fabre two years and six months in prison, six and a half of disqualification and a fine of 4,000 euros; and Jesús Manuel Martín Brito one year and three months in prison, three of disqualification and a fine of 50,000 euros for the same crimes.
For his part, Samuel Lemes, who was not accused of bribery, is convicted of embezzlement, fraud and documentary falsification to one year and six months in prison and three of disqualification. In addition, they will all have to return to the City Council the amounts that each one unduly collected.
Along with the ten convicted, two other people sat on the bench who were acquitted. One was the head of Contracting of Arrecife and daughter of Dimas Martín, Elena Martín, and the other the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa.
In addition, the former PIL councilor José Miguel Rodríguez and the one who was Dimas Martín's right-hand man, Matías Curbelo, were accused in this piece, but both died before the trial arrived. During the investigation, both confessed to the crimes.
The sentence again endorses the investigation
In the appeals that have been rejected, both Dimas Martín and Antonio Machín alleged alleged violations of rights during the investigation of this case, reiterating the same arguments that have already been rejected in other pieces of the Unión case.
For years, these and other defendants tried to impose their theses and accusations against the investigating judge, against the prosecutors and against the UCO agents who intervened in this case in public opinion, and even complaints were filed against them, which have already been dismissed.
The defendant who most championed that strategy was Luis Lleó, with whom this case began. Finally, when the trial arrived, Lleó ended up confessing to the crimes he was accused of. Now, in another of the central pieces of Unión, the Supreme Court has again endorsed the investigation, rejecting the allegations of the convicted.
Of the pieces into which this case was divided, only one remains to be judged, relating to the stage of María Isabel Déniz in the Mayor's Office of Arrecife. After years of delays, finally that hearing, which will also seat the former secretary, Felipe Fernández Camero, on the bench, already has a date for next April.
