The Provincial Court of Las Palmas has decided to remove Judge Rafael Lis Estévez from the case for the alleged theft of cars in the Unión case, thus accepting the recusal requested by the complainant in the case, Magistrate César Romero Pamparacuatro. This has been confirmed to La Voz by the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Las Palmas, which had supported this recusal. In its resolution, the Court concludes that there is an "indirect interest" and a "reasonable doubt about the prejudices or preventions" that the judge could have "in relation to one of the parties".
Specifically, as Pamparacuatro pointed out when requesting the recusal, the head of the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Arrecife is the husband of Juan Francisco Rosa's lawyer in the Stratvs case, Margarita Alejo Hervás. In addition, both are linked in a legal and tax advisory company, Lexislas Global SL, founded by Judge Lis in 2003, when he was on leave and practicing law. Lis Estévez was the sole administrator of that company until April 2009, when he was replaced in the position by his wife, but he currently still appears as "general attorney", "with very broad powers", according to the certificate from the Mercantile Registry provided by Pamparacuatro when he presented his recusal document.
Just after Lis took charge of the case opened for the theft of cars, Juan Francisco Rosa hired his wife as a lawyer to defend him in the Stratvs case. In this regard, César Romero Pamparacuatro pointed out that the events being investigated in his complaint could "be reflected" not only in the Unión case, in which Rosa is also accused, but even in Stratvs, since recordings made by the UCO were incorporated into that case as evidence, also based on wiretapping orders from Unión.
"It is public and notorious that Magistrate Liz Estévez's wife is the lawyer Alejo Hervás, and this makes us suspect that there is, within that intimate bond, an exchange of information/recommendations that at least casts doubt on the judge's impartiality to hear and process the complaint filed by Romero Pamparacuatro, since we suspect that there is at least a direct and/or indirect interest of the same", he states in the conclusions of the recusal document, which had the support of the Prosecutor's Office and has now been accepted by the Provincial Court.
He allowed defendants to appear in the secret case
In addition to questioning his impartiality due to his ties to Rosa's lawyer, Pamparacuatro also questioned the actions taken so far by Judge Lis in the case. Among other things, he considered it "paradoxical" that the judge had allowed several defendants from Unión to appear in the case for the theft of cars, despite the fact that the proceedings are secret. In addition to Juan Francisco Rosa, who even appears as a "complainant", Felipe Fernández Camero, Luis Lleó, Dimas Martín, Plácida Guerra and four Urbaser executives have also appeared as "injured parties" in the case.
It should be remembered that several defendants tried to cling to this secret case being followed in Court Number 3 to try to stop the first trial of Unión, for the payment of false invoices to Francisco Rodríguez Batllori. However, the Provincial Court rejected their appeals and the trial began, which even has a conviction for the six defendants.
To all this, the recusal document added that "Magistrate Liz Estévez has been strangely avoiding for more than eight months (now a year, since the recusal was filed in November), summoning my client (César Romero Pamparacuatro) to ratify the body of his complaint", and questioned that "the corresponding investigation, which is clearly necessary due to the importance and significance of the reported facts", had not been carried out either.
In this regard, he pointed out that as a complainant, Romero Pamparacuatro "is fully aware of the reported facts, witnesses of the same, people on whom suspicions fall based on the testimonies, etcetera, all facts that undoubtedly should have been known for some time by the instructor of these proceedings".
In addition, he showed his "enormous surprise" because the proceedings "continue to be declared secret", although several defendants have been allowed to appear despite this. Last October, Romero Pamparacuatro himself also decided to appear with a lawyer in the case as a complainant, and even requested the practice of proceedings, which were rejected by the judge. However, Pamparacuatro stresses that he does not know if other proceedings have been carried out "at the request of the other parties appearing", which in his opinion "would demonstrate the distortion of the professional practice of the recused magistrate in this procedure, regarding the object of the process and its purpose".
