Javier Díaz-Reixa, lawyer and member of the Urban Transparency association, is one of the complainants in the Stratvs case. Now, once the investigation is over and after learning about the Prosecutor's Office's indictment, Díaz-Reixa recalls how they became aware of the illegalities of Juan Francisco Rosa's winery, talks about the "hunt" and the "smear campaign" that the complainants have suffered as a result of their complaint and the Special Plan of La Geria and the "skills" of the administrations. In addition, in an interview on Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero, he defended the "rigor", the "professionalism" and the "courage" of Judge Silvia Muñoz, prosecutor Ignacio Stampa and the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard.
- You are many people complaining, why do you decide to denounce the construction of this "macro complex", as the Prosecutor's Office calls it in its indictment?
Let's remember a little, because many lies and distortions have been said here and it is convenient to do a little history. At a certain moment, we see in the press the complaints of some winemakers of La Geria, the authentic historical winemakers of the area, in relation to the difference in treatment that is being made with respect to some works.
We went to see those works and we verified that there is indeed an absolutely scandalous difference in treatment with the historical winemakers of La Geria and it is in that context of social alarm when we denounced it. From there, the normal consequences of the normal functioning of a State of Law have passed.
-Did you think that your complaint was going to reach this point, to prison requests of this caliber?
Frankly, no. At the moment we filed it (the complaint) we thought it was our duty to do so in the context of what many of us have been working on for the last 30 years. We made that complaint and we could not predict the path that this was going to have. Subsequently, it was the investigating judge and the Prosecutor's Office that were investigating with increasing rigor all that documentation and the intricacies of the matter and we have reached this point. But I think there has also been a lot of clumsiness on the part of some.
-What do you mean?
That, instead of acting as one behaves in a State of Law, what we are witnessing is a hunt. Those who are being hunted here are citizens who have complied with their legal duties. There is a judge who has done an absolutely exquisite job, a prosecutor who is fulfilling the statutory function that the laws say and some other people who are being attacked in a completely absurd way.
-Despite that "hunt" that they say they have suffered, has it been worth it? Would you do the same again?
With absolute certainty, yes, we would. When we started, we knew perfectly well that this was not going to be easy. We could not imagine the very high personal and professional cost that maintaining these positions has meant for us, but we are not here to be applauded or to be thanked for the work. We have a job to do and we are doing it. But well, we hoped that at least they would not play so dirty or resort to lies, fabrications, alleged conspiracies in Famara bars.... Anyway.
-The investigation of the case points to Juan Francisco Rosa's ease in influencing the administrations, which did not prevent the construction of Stratvs, and now the winery could also try to be legalized with the new La Geria Plan. What do you think of that document and the new modification that is intended to be approved?
That of never losing your skills... What happens is that in this case the skills are bad, very bad skills. I think it will have little recorrido because there what has been tried to do is to create the conditions for a winery to improperly appropriate a possession pretending to equate with historical wineries of La Geria that have been operating for 200 or 300 years and, obviously, we can not compare them.
This does not surprise us, but that Plan is challenged and now another procedure of revision is beginning as hasty and reckless as the previous one, to fit with shoehorn the revision of article 117, I think I remember, which is the one that refers to the structuring equipment. Anyway, that has the recorrido that it has. If someone wants to continue playing and cheating with this, great. They are simply showing the cracks through which to attack acts like that, which we consider to be contrary to the law and come to confirm and ratify the unequal treatment that we have been denouncing for years.
-Do you think that the administration is still acting as if nothing had happened?
It's surprising. I have been in professional practice for 25 or 30 years and I have never seen such a clumsy action on the part of the people who should be here to guarantee that things are done as they should be done and that the rules of the game are followed. Interests and pretensions can be had even to take the sky by storm, but you have to abide by the rules of the game and not try to change them in the middle of the game. I insist, it is not a good way. I am surprised that the promoter, having the advisors of such high lineage that he has, does not mark a path a little more bearable and I am particularly surprised that the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Lanzarote want to continue playing with fire by throwing gasoline.
We are not surprised by any of these things, but we do our work very discreetly where we have to do it and, beware, this game is not played in the media, it is played in the context of a trial, of a court that will be chosen according to very scrupulous rules. If someone wants to continue cheering the fans, let them do it, but the game is not going to be decided there.
-Do you think that with these attacks they are also trying to "intimidate" the people who work in the field of Justice?
It is normal for someone to cheer the fans, but the game is played on the other side. The question is that someone denounces the people of Urban Transparency, says nonsense about us, we have endured these pranks for two or three years because they are paid, but, beware, we are the anecdote here. What can not be done is to attack a prosecutor, Mr. Stampa, who has done a job that I applaud with all my hands, because it is a job of enormous professionalism for which you must also have a lot of rigor and a lot of courage. What am I going to say about the judge, both this one and the previous one, who took this matter seriously. Especially the current one, Silvia Muñoz, has taken it very seriously, she is a professional like the top of a pine tree.
And what am I going to say about the UCO? We, who many ran in front of the gray ones, have surprised ourselves having to applaud the democratic Police of the State of Law. So, well, let the others continue on that path, but I do not rent them the profit.
