The trial for the 'shearwater roasting' that took place in Alegranza on February 8, 2015, has been adjourned for sentencing this Wednesday, after four hours of oral hearing in which the 19 defendants have refused to respond to the Prosecutor's Office, the popular accusation and the judge and have only answered their own lawyers. "Did you hunt shearwaters?, did you catch shearwaters?, did you cook shearwaters?, did you eat shearwaters?", the lawyers have been reiterating to their clients, who have answered no to all those questions. Even one has alleged that at that moment he had just been operated on and has provided a medical report to indicate that he was "forbidden" to eat fats, while the rest have defended that what they ate was "tortilla", "sausages" and, some of them, "goat stew".
However, what the Civil Guard found that day on the beach was first "smell of cooked bird" and then a pot with "shearwater stew", as confirmed by the analysis carried out later. "There is no doubt that the sample was shearwater", the expert who performed the analysis has declared in the trial. Even, the agents have declared that this was also confirmed by the person they found cooking, Andrés González Curbelo, who was the first one they addressed. "I remember that gesture as one of resignation, contrite. Of shame, let's say", one of the agents pointed out, shortly after the accused had denied that confession. "Is it true that he acknowledged it?", his lawyer has asked him. "No", he has responded, thus contradicting what was declared by this agent and also by the Seprona sergeant, who was the one who addressed him to ask him.
In addition, all the accused have also denied that their rights were read to them, contrary to what was declared by the agents, who assure that they did so as soon as they confirmed the existence of a possible crime. In fact, this has been another question reiterated by all the lawyers, who when presenting their final conclusions have requested the annulment of all the evidence -alleging that supposed violation of rights that they had not raised until now, not even at the beginning of the trial-, and have also announced the challenge of the expert analysis of the shearwater stew sample, alleging a supposed "break in the chain of custody".
In this regard, the Prosecutor's Office has not only defended that the custody of that evidence was correct, but has also stated that this challenge raised at the end of the trial should not even be taken into account, since "it was not put on the table at the appropriate procedural moment" nor has it been alluded to in the preliminary questions that are raised at the beginning of the oral hearing.
One of the accused has testified from prison
Along with González Curbelo, among the accused by the Prosecutor's Office are also Fernando González Berriel, Juan Carlos González Berriel, Juan Hernández Martín, Antonio Quintana López, Victoriano Santana Cabrera, Juan Cuevas Alonso, Jaime Isaac Rodríguez Rodríguez, Orlando José Rivera Cabrera, Ibrahim Josué Cabrera Delgado and Adal González Cabrera. In the case of the latter, son of Fernando González Berriel, he has not been present in the room and has testified by videoconference, since he is currently in prison on the island of La Palma for a drug trafficking crime. For all of them, the prosecutor is asking for a fine of almost 6,000 euros and three years of special disqualification for hunting, for a crime against the environment in its modality of protection of fauna.
In addition, along with them, another eight people have sat on the bench at the request of the popular accusation, exercised by Urban Transparency and the Association of Friends of the Cory's Shearwater. These are Agustiniano Hernández de León, Sotero Martín Villalba, Juan Miguel Medina Rodríguez, Cristóbal Miguel Morales, Juan José Rivera, Isidro Manuel Brito, Gabriel Eugenio Hernández and Juan Carlos Eugenio Hernández.
For these eight defendants, the Prosecutor's Office ended up requesting the file when the investigation was closed, considering that the report and the photographs provided by the agents do not allow to determine their specific participation in the events, since only some of the defendants were next to the area where the shearwaters were being cooked and where a tent with table and chairs had been installed. However, the popular accusation considers that the participation of all was the same, because they were part of the same group, and asks for each one a fine of 8,700 euros, as well as three years of disqualification.
"They seemed like a single group of friends enjoying a camping trip"
"They were a single group, they all interacted with each other. They seemed like friends who were enjoying a camping trip", declared the Seprona sergeant who intervened in the operation, Gloria Moreno, who explained that before acting she spent more than half an hour observing the beach from a cliff next to another agent, who also confirmed the same.
However, all the accused have denied that they organized or participated in any "feast" and have even assured that they did not know each other or form a group. "I only knew three or four", most have declared. In addition, they have focused their defense on ensuring that on that beach there were many more people than those who were identified by the agents, who are the 19 accused.
The majority has assured that there were "between 40 and 45 people", although some have referred to "between 30 and 40" and another has even spoken of more than 45, pointing out that the rest "hid" or "fled" when they saw the Civil Guard arrive. "They shot to kill but missed the shots", one of the lawyers alleged when presenting his final conclusions, suggesting that those responsible could have escaped. However, both the Seprona sergeant and the other two agents who participated in the operation have denied this version, among other things clarifying that the beach is located in a place of difficult access, from which it would not be easy to flee on foot. Thus, they have flatly ruled out that there could have been 20 or 30 more people.
"Tense" moments on the beach
In the case of the maritime service agent who went ashore with the sergeant, he pointed out that while they were carrying out the surveillance before intervening they saw a group of "19 or 20 people" in total, while the colleague who stayed on the boat has also ruled out that the amount of people that the accused have indicated could flee or hide. For her part, the Seprona sergeant has specified that she does know that someone escaped, but only two people, and has explained that they could not go after them as there were only two agents and they had to guard both the "object of the crime", that is, the pot with the "shearwater stew", as well as the other 19 people who were on the beach and who had to be identified.
In addition, the sergeant has declared that they experienced "tense" moments and that she was even "berated" by one of the accused. "My safety and that of my partner were in danger. Among these people there were people with crimes for violence and drug trafficking", she pointed out, when explaining why they could not make a more exhaustive ocular inspection of everything that was on the beach and in particular of the garbage bags -where they could have put the remains of cleaning the birds-, focusing on the content of the pot where they were cooking the shearwaters. "Some were more collaborative than others. At no time did it become aggression, but it was complicated", confirmed the other agent, who declared that the accused were "intoxicated".
What they did inspect was the surroundings, both that day and two days later, when a technician from the Environment Department of the Cabildo and the natural spaces guard went to the area. In these inspections, both these two technicians and the Seprona sergeant have confirmed that they found empty shearwater nests, with signs that there had been chicks recently, due to the footprints and the state of the excrement. In addition, they found a sack with ten dead shearwaters in a state of decomposition.
