The Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife has issued this Thursday the first conviction in the Unión case, and it has done so without the case even going to trial. The only defendant in this piece, the former mayor of Yaiza José Francisco Reyes, has acknowledged the facts and has shown his agreement with the penalty requested by the Prosecutor's Office.
As La Voz advanced at the time, Reyes signed his agreement last November 11 with the prosecutor Javier Ródenas's indictment, which was pending ratification before the Court. For this purpose, a hearing has been called this Thursday in the Criminal Court that should have held the trial. And as confirmed to La Voz from the Environmental Prosecutor's Office of Las Palmas, in that hearing Reyes has ratified his confession and has accepted the sentence, so at that same moment the sentence "in voce" has been issued.
The ruling, which is now final, imposes on the former mayor a penalty of six months in prison and 12 years of disqualification from employment or public office for a crime of malfeasance, by granting illegal licenses for the construction of the chalet of Carlos Morales and Alexia of Greece. The sentence also declares null and void those permits that Reyes granted to the political cousin of the King of Spain.
By accepting the agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, Reyes has avoided the trial and has managed to reduce the penalty that was initially requested, which was two years in prison. For José Francisco Reyes this is already the second conviction for malfeasance, and he also still has other criminal cases behind him. In the largest one, the Yate case, for the massive granting of illegal licenses in Playa Blanca, the Prosecutor's Office is asking for 25 years in prison.
The turn of the defense
The agreement of Reyes and his defense, represented by Juana Fernández de las Heras, contrasts with the strategy followed so far in the Unión case by this same lawyer and her father, Felipe Fernández Camero, who is also charged in the case. Until now, in other pieces, both Juana Fernández and Camero have focused their defense on requesting the nullity of the case, alleging alleged irregularities in the instruction.
In the first trial that was seen for sentencing last Friday, for the allegedly fraudulent payments to Francisco Rodríguez Batllori, Fernández de las Heras represented one of the defendants (the former councilor of Arrecife Luisa Blanco) and requested that the evidence and the entire case be declared null and void, based on these alleged irregularities that several defendants denounce, including Fernández Camero. However, in this other piece against Reyes, which arises from the same cause, the lawyer signed the agreement document together with her client, and has ratified it this Thursday before the Court.
In addition to Reyes, the prosecutor of Arrecife assigned to the Environment area of Las Palmas, Ignacio Stampa, who was at the beginning of the Unión case and continues to lead the instruction of two pieces, was also present at the hearing. In this one, he has been in charge of representing Ródenas during the hearing, who is the one who has led this piece during the entire instruction and who signs the indictment. As for the defense of Reyes, on this occasion Juana Fernández has not attended the hearing but her brother, Felipe Fernández de las Heras.
"Fully aware of the illegality"
The events for which Reyes has been convicted date back to 2005, when Carlos Morales asked the Yaiza City Council for a municipal building permit for a basic project, for the construction of a single-family home on Barranco del Agua street, located between the partial plans of Puerto Calero and Cortijo Viejo.
On December 5, 2006, according to the Prosecutor's Office document that has been accepted by Reyes, the then mayor signed a decree granting that license, despite the fact that he was "fully aware of the illegality of its concession" and even had unfavorable reports, both from the secretary and from the surveyor of the Technical Office, who warned him.
The same thing happened later with a second license granted by Reyes, already for the execution of the final project, which was also granted with negative technical reports, "ignoring the most elementary administrative procedural rules, violating the most basic rules of mandatory observance imposed by the applicable urban planning regulations, dispensing with the essential procedures in the granting of licenses" and "without having the mandatory and binding report of compatibility with the PIOT to be issued by the Cabildo of Lanzarote", according to the indictment of the Prosecutor's Office, with which the former mayor has shown his agreement.
The illegal housing and the new General Plan
During the instruction, Morales himself was charged with a crime against Land Management and another of inducing urban malfeasance. The second was eventually dismissed, as there was no evidence to prove that alleged influence on Reyes to grant him illegal licenses. As for the first, the judge who was then instructing the case, María Jesús Hernández Elvira, also decided to dismiss it, understanding that Carlos Morales could have incurred an administrative infraction, but not a crime.
What the sentence has done is declare the licenses of his chalet illegal. However, it should be remembered that the new General Plan of Yaiza reclassifies that land, so Carlos Morales could now initiate the procedure to regularize the housing, requesting a new license under the General Plan in force.