The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, denies "categorically the information published by the newspaper Canarias Ahora that attributes to him an intervention to stop the criminal case against the senator of the Autonomous Community Pedro San Ginés, in relation to the process of the creditors' contest in which the public water company Inalsa was involved."
The president of the Cabildo assures that “the news published, without the signature of any journalist by the aforementioned newspaper, distorts reality given that the procedure did not end due to withdrawal either by the Consortium or by Inalsa, in fact it is stated in the order of the Provincial Court of September 4, 2023 by which this judicial body resolves not to accept the incident of nullity promoted by the Water Consortium of Lanzarote and imposes the costs of the incident on the Cabildo of Lanzarote itself”, assures the president of the Cabildo, who adds that “the case has also been sent by the judge who is hearing the case to the Supreme Court, given the condition of senator being a person with special legal protection”.
Betancort also points out, and reminds “whoever wrote the news and whoever from the PSOE of Lanzarote has echoed it, that it was the previous president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, who, skipping the procedure established in the statutes of the Consortium and Inalsa, ordered to file a challenge against the judge who was hearing the case. So much so that the newspaper library was filled with statements from the different mayors assuring that they had not participated in any vote in this regard”, adds the highest leader of the Island Corporation.
In this sense, and given the need to endorse said agreement, “the legal services of the Cabildo understood that for reasons of institutional respect neither the Cabildo nor the Consortium should file challenges to the judges, because we owe respect and trust to the institution they represent. In this sense, a document was presented of which I am aware, but not the material or intellectual author”, adds the president.
“Regarding the relationship with the lawyer who was in charge of the legal direction of the procedure, it is true that he was told to wait for instructions, but such instructions were never given to him, but rather he was informed that the legal direction was going to be assumed by the legal services of the Consortium, communicating it personally in a meeting with the head of the Legal Services of the Island Council”, adds Betancort.
“But, although now they want to see ghosts, the reality is that there is no more reason than his contract, which like that of so many other professionals had ended a year ago. Therefore, the legal matters that did not have a contract in force were assumed by the legal services of the Cabildo. I do not consider, out of respect, that the rest of the irregularities of the contracting should be mentioned by me. This one here did not order anything in that regard. These are legal criteria adopted by the new legal direction, the legal services of the Cabildo, of unquestionable impartiality and objectivity, and unrelated to political strategies within the judicial proceedings”, concludes the president.
