The Criminal Court No. 3 of Arrecife has sentenced the former mayor of the municipality of San Bartolomé, Miguel Martín, to a prison sentence of two years as "criminally responsible for a crime of falsification of a private document" and to a fine of 24 months at a rate of 30 euros per day, with the possibility of one day of deprivation of liberty "for every two daily installments not satisfied", for "false accusation".
Miguel Martín has been convicted of presenting a "document altered fraudulently by himself" in a complaint he filed against two individuals, Esteban Cabrera Velásquez and Vicenta Hierro Umpiérrez, whom he accused of document forgery and fraud for a sale contract referring to a property, which they owned and which was not finalized. The procedure was dismissed and a case was opened against Miguel Martín and the accused became the accusers.
According to the facts stated in the judgment and based on the statements of the private prosecution, Miguel Martín gave 800,000 pesetas to Esteban Cabrera and Vicenta Hierro as a purchase of a property and a document (receipt or sale) was drawn up to record it. The couple later met with Miguel Martín at the Notary to formalize the sale, but apparently he never showed up. The former mayor finally stopped the purchase and the owners tried, according to their version, to return the money, which Miguel Martín did not accept on two occasions. However, in the year 2000 he filed the complaint and presented the document where the amount of 9,800,000 pesetas appeared, instead of the 800,000 that the couple claims he had given them.
"In the document, the number "9" has been added before the figure "800,000" at a later time by the accused, and the expression in letters "(nine million eight hundred thousand pesetas)" at the end of the document", explains the judgment, in which it considers as proven fact that he did it "with the intention that the judicial body determine the obligation of the payment of that amount to his person by D. Esteban Cabrera Velázquez and his wife, both of advanced age, thus obtaining from the Court a favorable judicial resolution, for which he did not hesitate to go to the Court and file a complaint that he knew did not conform to reality, accusing the now complainants of committing two crimes, fraud and forgery of a public document".
The judge states in the judgment that "it is not understood that the accused makes a concise sales document, which could be taken as a simple receipt, and then instead of adding a clarification, he rectifies it when, as he stated in the instruction, due to his work they have full experience in drafting this type of documents". For these reasons and for all the statements of the witnesses for the prosecution that according to the judgment "enjoy greater credibility and veracity than those provided by the accused himself and the witness for the defense", the Judge has considered Miguel Martín the author of the crime of document forgery and false accusation.
Now the former mayor of San Bartolomé will have to compensate Esteban Cabrera and Vicente Hierro for "moral damages", since they "suffered 8 months of instruction in the Preliminary Proceedings, as a result of the complaint filed by Martín". A situation that according to the judgment "has caused them unease, anguish and impotence", since they are "people of advanced age" and of "humble condition".
Miguel Martín has also been sentenced to special disqualification for the right of passive suffrage for two years. The sentence is not final and can still be appealed by the former mayor of San Bartolomé.
[CONVICTION SENTENCE AGAINST MIGUEL MARTÍN->13167]
