The Civil Guard has opened disciplinary proceedings against a corporal and an agent for the dissemination of the video of the operation in which Judge Ricardo Fiestras was reported for failing to comply with the measures against Covid, in a private meeting in a chalet in the municipality of Yaiza, when the island was at alert level 4 last February.
As confirmed by the spokesman of the Spanish Association of Civil Guards, José Cobo, it is the corporal who was in charge of the operation and the agent who recorded the images, which ended up reaching the media. Both face a possible serious sanction after the complaint that was raised to the Civil Guard by Magistrate Ricardo Fiestras.
That sanction, as Cobo explained, could range from four days of suspension of employment and salary to the loss of destination. However, he pointed out that after the proceedings have been initiated for the alleged commission of a serious offense, the agents have a period "to defend themselves and present allegations."
Specifically, it was the Rapid Intervention Group (GIR) of the Civil Guard who carried out the operation in a chalet located between Puerto Calero and Uga, where the judge had gone to spend a few days with his partner. There, according to the magistrate's own environment, about ten people gathered, when the regulations in force at that time in Lanzarote, which was at alert level 4 due to the incidence of Covid, only allowed meetings of a maximum of two non-cohabiting people. Among them was Fernando Becerra, convicted in the Unión case.
At the time, the magistrate himself acknowledged that “there may have been a violation of the rules” and both he and the other participants were willing to accept the sanction, although he disagreed with the "versions" that circulated denying that it was a party. However, the reason for his complaint to the Civil Guard, and which was signed by other people who were with him, was not the action itself, but the fact that the agents recorded a video that ended up being disseminated, according to sources close to the magistrate confirmed at the time.
After that, a reserved information file was opened in the Civil Guard, which is the previous step to determine the opening of a disciplinary procedure, as has happened. In addition to proposing a serious sanction, the spokesman of the Spanish Association of Civil Guards has confirmed that, prior to the opening of disciplinary proceedings, it was also proposed to make changes in the Rapid Intervention Group (GIR) and replace the agents involved. "They are officially assigned to the different positions on the island, they would return to those units, and other agents would enter the GIR," he said.
