The councilor of the Yaiza City Council and former mayor of this southern town, José Francisco Reyes, of the Lanzarote Nationalist Party (PNL), has been released without bail accused of a crime of urban planning prevarication, according to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC). Reyes testified on Thursday afternoon before the presiding judge of the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 5 of Arrecife, César Romero Pamparacuatro.
Reyes was arrested on Thursday morning by police officers as part of Operation "Unión", which investigates an alleged payment of illegal commissions in several official institutions of Lanzarote. The Yaiza councilor was arrested at his home, located in Femés, and was transferred to the Costa Teguise Civil Guard barracks.
Reyes, who is currently sentenced in the first instance for prevarication to ten years of disqualification for the granting of an urban license on rustic land in Yaiza, was mayor of the southern town between 1994 and 2008, until he was deposed in a motion of censure that granted the mayoralty to Gladys Acuña, of the PIL, also charged in 'Operation Unión'.
José Francisco Reyes, who is part of the opposition in the Yaiza City Council, is also charged with irregularities in the Costa Roja Partial Plan and in the case of illegal licenses to hotels. Recently, the former mayor assured the media that his only source of income at present is unemployment benefit.
