The trial for malfeasance against the former president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, has a date again, after being suspended almost a year ago after the first day was held. The new calendar has been set for May 16, 17, 24 and 25, as agreed this Tuesday between all parties before the Criminal Court Number 3 of Arrecife.
This trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant had already begun in November 2020, but on the second day San Ginés' defense argued that this Court was not competent, arguing that it should have been referred to the Provincial Court, due to the penalties requested for the accused. Thus, he managed to have it suspended, after the three defendants had already testified, with important contradictions between the statements of the former president and the former secretary of the Corporation, Francisco Perdomo.
However, the Court overturned that argument a month later, returning the case to the Court and to the magistrate who had initiated the trial. Since then, San Ginés' defense has continued to file appeals to try to avoid the bench, but all have been rejected. And the challenge he filed against the judge, questioning her impartiality to remove her from the case, was also dismissed.
In its response rejecting that challenge, the First Section of the Court also imposed a fine of 1,000 euros on San Ginés, considering that he acted with “proven bad faith”, launching “excessive” and “unjustified accusations” against the magistrate. In addition, he pointed out that the objective of presenting that writing, which he described as “unjustified”, “unfounded” and “dilatory”, was “to remove from the matter a judge who is uncomfortable for him”.
Now, after all these attempts have failed, San Ginés will return to the bench, in a trial that will have to be restarted from the beginning, repeating the statements that had already been made a year ago, given the time that has passed.
Along with the former president and the former secretary, the former manager of the Insular Water Council, José Juan Hernández Duchemín, is also accused in the case. For all of them, the popular accusation requested in its provisional qualification document a sentence of 12 years of disqualification.
"He carried out his personal will, deviating from the law"
In the order with which he ended the investigation of the case, Judge Jerónimo Alonso considered "circumstantially proven" that San Ginés, as head of the Insular Water Council, “carried out his personal will, deviating from the law” to “deprive” the company Club Lanzarote “of the management of the hydraulic facilities of the Montaña Roja urbanization of Playa Blanca”. The magistrate maintained that the then president of the Cabildo “lacked the powers” for the seizure, since he did not have judicial authorization and “the sector regulations on water only empowered him to impose financial penalties for minor and less serious infractions”.
In addition, he described as "disproportionate" that precautionary measure, which was also annulled and declared illegal in the contentious-administrative channel, and added that not even “a situation of urgency” concurred that “justified” the seizure, which was carried out “without granting prior hearing proceedings” to the company, “violating its right of defense”.
Afterwards, San Ginés handed over those seized plants to Canal Gestión, which obtained an economic benefit, by billing the water to the residents of that partial plan, until the Justice annulled that precautionary measure. The person who supposedly advised the former president to make that decision was the lawyer Ignacio Calatayud, who at the same time worked for Canal Gestión. Calatayud was also investigated in the case, but was 'uncharged' with an order from Judge Salvador Alba, who was then working in the Provincial Court and is currently removed from the judiciary, after being convicted of serious crimes in the exercise of his position.
As a result of that order, the Prosecutor's Office decided not to file charges against the rest of the investigated either, "given the impossibility of formulating charges against who, according to the other investigated, was the ideologue of the operation." However, he has defended that the case continue only with the popular accusation, and the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office did attend the trial that began a year ago, asking questions to all the accused. In the case of San Ginés, he refused to answer those questions from the prosecutor and only answered his own lawyer.
