Four years after the Provincial Court of Las Palmas annulled the first sentence and ordered the hearing to be repeated, the trial of La Bufona finally has a date again. The sessions will begin on November 14 and this time, the buyers of the 14 houses, which were illegally expanded by invading protected rural land, will also be present as jointly and severally liable parties.
Among them is the mayor of Arrecife, Ástrid Pérez, and the former coordinating prosecutor in Lanzarote, Miguel Pallarés, who has not practiced on the island for more than a decade.
The fact of not having included them in the procedure at the time was what led the Court to annul the first ruling, which condemned the promoters of the houses, Federico Echevarría and Antonio Caro, for continued crimes against land planning, after an investigation that lasted more than 16 years.
Precisely those “extraordinary” and “unjustified” “undue delays” led to reducing the sentence of the two defendants to “six months in prison less one day”. In addition, the ruling ordered the partial demolition of the 14 homes, but it was when executing that part that the problems began again.
At that time, several owners filed an incident of nullity alleging that they had been "harmed" by the ruling and that they had not been given the opportunity to appear in the case.
"Suspicion" and "surprise" of the Court with the owners
When responding to this request for annulment, the Public Prosecutor's Office opposed its admission, arguing that they had all been summoned as witnesses in the trial and that they "were able to express their opinion". However, the Court concluded that the fact that they testified as witnesses is not "sufficient" to consider that they were duly notified of the procedure and the consequences it could have for them.
“Although the Court may consider it at least strange that they did not know the consequences that the conviction that could be handed down could have for their houses, it is evident that we cannot raise that strangeness, that suspicion, to the level of certainty that is necessary in this case," the resolution concluded.
Thus, it annulled the actions taken in the case since December 2011, when the Public Prosecutor's Office filed its indictment, and ordered that the actions be reversed to that moment, so that the owners of the properties could be summoned as jointly and severally liable parties and the trial be held again. Since then, almost four years have passed, with constant complaints from the complainant, Gonzalo Murillo, who considers that neither the Prosecutor's Office nor the respective magistrates have acted diligently in this case, which affects, among others, a prosecutor.
Illegal works after the delivery of the houses
In total, there are about twenty people cited as jointly and severally liable, as owners of the 14 houses. During the first trial, the two convicted men alleged that the works that were carried out on rural land - which is not even registered in their name - were carried out by the buyers after the sale, expanding what was originally delivered, with the installation of elements such as swimming pools and pergolas.
For their part, several buyers admitted to having carried out works without a license, although they defended that they carried them out within the property that they were given, which they claim was already delimited by a wall.
When presenting the incident of nullity during the execution of that sentence, the buyers requested that the part of the sentence that ordered the demolition be annulled, although the Court rejected that possibility, and what it ordered was to repeat the trial. Finally, this will arrive more than four years after that order was issued, and more than 20 after the investigation of this case began.
