The Prosecutor's Office sent an urgent request to the Cabildo of Lanzarote this Wednesday, demanding that the Corporation hand over the report prepared by the director of the Island Plan Office, Leopoldo Díaz, on the Stratvs winery and the Special Plan of La Geria. The devastating report, which had remained hidden until now, has been made public this week, following the dismissal of the jurist by Pedro San Ginés last Friday.
The Prosecutor's Office's request arrived at the Cabildo's Secretariat by fax and came from the prosecutor in the Stratvs case, Ignacio Stampa. In his writing, the Prosecutor's Office gave a deadline of 3:00 PM on Wednesday for the Corporation to send him that document, as well as the writings of the president, Pedro San Ginés, commissioning that report to Leopoldo Díaz.
By requesting that report, San Ginés intended to have a "counter-report" to the one prepared by the Cabildo's jurist Joana Macías, who acts as an expert in the Stratvs case. However, the conclusions of the former head of the PIOT Office were the same as those of Macías and even more forceful, if possible. Both jurists agree when talking about "radical nullity defects" in the Special Plan of La Geria and a privileged treatment of the Stratvs winery within that document, despite which it would still not be legalizable.
Urgent meeting at the Cabildo
After receiving the Prosecutor's Office's request, the Cabildo's secretary, Pancho Perdomo, informed the councilor who was acting as president in office this Wednesday, Luis Arráez. According to sources from the Corporation, a meeting then took place in which other CC councilors also participated. In addition, the president, Pedro San Ginés, was contacted by telephone, who was in Tenerife, precisely to address the crisis of the pact with the PSOE due to the dismissal of Leopoldo Díaz.
Afterwards, the secretary sent the report and the previous requests made by San Ginés to the Prosecutor's Office, as well as Leopoldo Díaz's responses. In his request, according to sources from the Corporation, the prosecutor pointed out that the jurist's report affects an expert opinion that is part of a judicial procedure, the Stratvs case.
Specifically, San Ginés commissioned Leopoldo Díaz to prepare a report on the "legal considerations" made by the jurist Joana Macías in that expert opinion requested by the Court, and argued that he was doing so "attending" to the "repercussion" that that report could have "on the authorization acts that are being reported by this Cabildo", given that there was talk of "nullity defects" in the Plan de La Geria, which was approved by the Government of the Canary Islands. "He has put the entire Corporation at the mercy of the horses," San Ginés publicly said at the time.
The independence of experts, protected by law
In his report, dated last April, Leopoldo Díaz began by clarifying that his report "does not have the character of a complementary, added or clarifying expertise of the one signed in court, since the one who requested it is the president of the Cabildo" and not a judge. In addition, he even emphasized that the independence of a technician who acts as an expert in a Court is protected by law, and it could be a crime to try to influence his conclusions, as the judge in the Stratvs case, Silvia Muñoz, also recalled at the time, in an order where she referred to a writing that Pedro San Ginés had sent her, in which he questioned Joana Macías's report. Publicly, the president has always assured that the "legal services" of the Cabildo did not share that report from Macías, although the truth is that the jurist who has been in charge of the PIOT Office for 20 years maintains exactly the same thing.
In addition, it should be remembered that not only Joana Macías acts as an expert in this case. In his indictment, the prosecutor also asked that Leopoldo Díaz, as well as other technicians from the Corporation, be cited as experts during the trial. The president himself, Pedro San Ginés, as well as the former Minister of the Environment, Francisco Fabelo, must also attend the trial, in their case as witnesses, since the Prosecutor's Office asked that they be summoned when a date is set for the hearing.