The mayor of Yaiza between 1994 and 2008, José Francisco Reyes, denied this Wednesday before the court that is judging him in the Provincial Court of Las Palmas, being the author of a crime against Land Management in the area known as Las Breñas. His answers to all the questions asked by both the Public Prosecutor's Office and his defense, defended the thesis that he signed the construction licenses for nine homes on rustic land, based on technical and legal reports that, according to what he acknowledged, he did not always read. "Of the pile of papers that they put in front of me", to sign "I read some and others I didn't".
The prosecutor, Ignacio Stampa, during his interrogation, pointed out on several occasions that some of the reports specified that the qualification of the 12,500 square meter land where the aforementioned housing development was finally built was rustic. Based on this statement, Stampa asked him to explain how it was possible that after seeing this reflected in a legal report, he granted the license. Reyes responded that of the reports he decided to read, randomly, he only did so with "the first paragraphs".
The trial, which began on Wednesday morning and will continue during the afternoon, also judges the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, the municipal secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes and two other City Council technicians, Pablo Carrasco and Alfredo Morales, for three continued crimes against land management and one of falsifying a public document, for allowing the construction of nine villas with swimming pools on independent plots of about a thousand meters each, belonging to a larger unit of 12,500 square meters declared rustic, according to the allegation of prosecutor Ignacio Stampa.
For this fact, the prosecutor requests for Reyes, Morales and Fuentes, nine years of special disqualification for employment or public office, and fines of 19,000, 7,500 and 15,000 euros, respectively, and for Pablo Carrasco, five years of disqualification for the same crime, and also, another five years in prison for falsifying a public document.
The Public Prosecutor's Office stated at the beginning of the hearing that its main thesis is that the four defendants were aware at the time of allowing the construction of the housing development that the qualification of the plot did not allow it, and therefore they omitted the request for permits from higher authorities, as specified by Law.
This thesis was denied repeatedly by both Reyes and the technical architect, Pablo Carrasco, the only one for whom a prison sentence is requested for documentary falsification. Carrasco, in his report favorable to the construction, states that the plot "is a building plot", and also refers "to article 50 of the PIOT" of Lanzarote, to justify the legality of a construction in the indicated area. The Public Prosecutor's Office repeatedly asked him to explain the use of the word "building plot", when the qualification of the land does not allow it, and the technician pointed out that he used it "simply" as a synonym for the words land or plot. He denied at all times that he wanted to "distort" the content of the regulations in force on the aforementioned property at the time of the construction of the nine-house development.
Likewise, both Carrasco and Reyes denied having friendly relations with the developer of the work, or that they met with him on the land to plan the nine-house project.
Both insisted on their lack of legal knowledge to understand in their fair terms all the urban planning regulations in force in the area, but they could not explain the reasons why, despite their ignorance, they did not seek technical advice. The former mayor pointed out that "of course" he fully trusted the reports prepared by the City Council technicians.
Facts
The facts date back to 1998. According to the prosecutor's account, the company Casas Conejeras acquired a rustic land of 12,500 meters between the towns of Las Breñas and Femés (Yaiza), "knowing that the Yaiza City Council would authorize the construction of at least one building for housing in the place".
The company built nine single-family homes with swimming pools on that land in nine independent plots and its construction was authorized through segregation and construction licenses by decrees of the mayor. All licenses were requested by the administrator of the company, Martín Bartolo, except one that was requested by his partner, Elsa Luzardo, while the decrees were signed by Reyes, except four that were signed by José Antonio Rodríguez and Narcisa Peña, as acting mayors.
Despite the segregations, the parent property did not decrease in size and continued to have 12,500 square meters. The Prosecutor's Office considers that Reyes knew that the urban planning required a detailed planning but "voluntarily disregarded" it. He also points out that the former mayor knew that the houses could not be authorized without prior control by the Government of the Canary Islands or the Cabildo, since to authorize buildings on rustic land a territorial qualification granted by the island institution is necessary. Two of those decrees were declared null by the courts of justice.
Regarding the secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, the Prosecutor's Office says that he omitted to state in his legal reports the need to obtain the territorial qualification of the Cabildo. However, in the first of the reports he made for those houses, in May 1998, he did state that a report of compatibility with the Island Planning Plan was necessary.
The technical architect of the City Council, Pablo Carrasco, "reported with awareness and willingness not to put any inconvenience", according to the Prosecutor, since he considered the land for which the licenses were requested as urban land, when they were rustic, as he himself recognized in the segregation licenses. For his part, the municipal building surveyor, Alfredo Morales, according to the prosecutor, reported several segregation requests in accordance with a municipal plan that was not definitively approved.
ACN Press
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