The Supreme Court has already resolved the appeals against the first sentence of the Stratvs case and has fully confirmed the convictions of the former mayor of Yaiza, Gladys Acuña, and five other defendants: former councilors José Antonio Rodríguez, Leonardo Rodríguez, Juan Lorenzo Tavío and Evaristo García and former mayor José Francisco Reyes.
Regarding the other two convicted in the first instance, the municipal technician Andrés Morales and the former secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, it has upheld their appeals only partially, eliminating one of the crimes of malfeasance for which they were convicted but maintaining the other.
The Supreme Court's ruling, dated this Monday, June 3, ratifies the penalties imposed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands on the rest of the defendants. In the case of Acuña, she must serve 14 years of disqualification and pay a fine of 10,800 euros for a crime against land management in its form of urban planning malfeasance, for having granted the activity license to the Stratvs winery knowing its illegality, and another of malfeasance by omission, for not having adopted measures for the closure of the facilities, which had nothing to do with what had been authorized.
Seven years of disqualification and fines for the rest
For the rest of the members that made up the Governing Board when that activity license was granted, Leonardo Rodríguez, Juan Lorenzo Tavío and Evaristo García, the sentence condemns them to 7 years of special disqualification for the exercise of the position of councilor, in addition to the payment of a fine, of 5,400 euros in the case of Tavío and García, and 10,800 in that of Rodríguez.
As for José Antonio Rodríguez, he must serve seven years of disqualification, also for a crime of malfeasance by omission. And it is that, as in the case of Acuña, the sentence considers that he did not fulfill his duty as councilor of Urban Planning, since despite being aware of its illegality, he did not take measures against the winery and the rest of the Stratvs macro-complex facilities.
Regarding Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes and Andrés Morales, they were initially sentenced to 14 years of disqualification and finally they must serve seven each, as one of the crimes is annulled. Specifically, the Supreme Court acquits them as necessary collaborators of a crime of administrative malfeasance but confirms their conviction as perpetrators of a crime against land management in its form of urban planning malfeasance. For that second crime, both must also pay a fine of 5,400 euros.
"They were aware of the violation of what was prescribed by the Yaiza PGOU and the Lanzarote PIOT," the ruling states, which considers that when they intervened for the second time in that file they were already aware of its illegality, and yet they gave "the activity for which the license was requested an appearance of legality that it clearly lacked".
New conviction for Reyes and awaiting the main Stratvs trial
Finally, José Francisco Reyes has also added with this sentence a new firm conviction of seven years of disqualification, because it was under his mandate when the file was initiated to grant the activity license that Acuña later granted. However, in his case he must still return to the dock in the main part of this case, where the main part of the procedure will be judged.
In fact, this first trial that already has a final sentence only focused on the facts related to Gladys Acuña, since when the hearing was held she was a regional parliamentarian and her immunity forced the trial to be held before the TSJC, which decided to divide the case. The rest remained in the hands of the Provincial Court and is still pending trial, which is set for early 2020, and in which the Prosecutor's Office is asking for 15 years in prison for the owner of the winery, Juan Francisco Rosa.
ADVANCE PENDING EXTENSION
