The president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, tried to get the Prosecutor's Office to adopt "measures" against the prosecutor in the Stratvs case, Ignacio Stampa, against whom he filed an official complaint last August. The letter was sent "in the name and on behalf" of the institution and was also signed by councilor Francisco Fabelo, but few in the Cabildo knew of its existence, which had not come to light until now. In his complaint, San Ginés and Fabelo accused the prosecutor of an alleged "serious offense" and requested "disciplinary" actions against him.
However, the complaint from Pedro San Ginés and Francisco Fabelo was rejected by the Fiscal Inspectorate, which reports to the State Attorney General's Office. "Its outright dismissal was agreed", states the Chief Inspector Prosecutor, Fausto Cartagena Pastor, in a letter addressed to La Voz de Lanzarote. Thus, although prosecutor Ignacio Stampa has declined to comment, the State Attorney General's Office has confirmed to this media outlet that it received that complaint signed by public officials of the Cabildo and that it was archived.
Specifically, Pedro San Ginés and Francisco Fabelo accused the prosecutor of an alleged "serious offense", for having questioned the impartiality of the Department of the Environment of the Cabildo (headed by Fabelo) in issuing an environmental report that was required within the case. Both considered that the prosecutor had disrespected the councilor by talking about his "employment ties" with the main defendant, Juan Francisco Rosa.
Far from adopting measures, the Prosecutor's Office archived the complaint, considering that Stampa's actions had been justified and motivated, thus supporting his work in this case, in which the indictment against 16 people, including public officials and employees of the Yaiza City Council, the Cabildo, and the Government of the Canary Islands, was already presented last March.
The "objectivity and impartiality" of the Department, "in question"
In March 2014, during the investigation of the case, the prosecutor requested that technicians assigned to the Prosecutor's Office of the Environment Chamber in Madrid, and not those of the Cabildo, carry out the report on the damages caused to the natural values of La Geria with the construction of Stratvs in the Barranco del Obispo. He intended to guarantee the "objectivity and impartiality" of the opinion, since he pointed out that the managing body of that protected space depended directly on Fabelo, who in turn "appears to be linked professionally" with Rosa and with BTL Lanzarote, also accused as a company.
In the order in which she accepted this request from the Prosecutor's Office, the judge also referred to Fabelo's "employment relationship" with Rosa, for whom he worked before joining the Cabildo as a councilor. In this regard, the judge pointed out that on the Stratvs website itself, as stated in a copy provided to the case, "it can be read that the cheese factory was founded at the end of 2006, promoted by Juan Francisco Rosa, the project's promoter, who had Francisco Fabelo, veterinarian and master cheesemaker in charge of it".
To this should be added Fabelo's appearance on the program "Un país para comérselo" (A Country to Eat), on Spanish Television, in September 2013. Although he was already a councilor of the Cabildo at that time, Fabelo appeared with the presenter, Ana Duato, acting as 'host' on Rosa's farm. In the report, in which he was in charge of showing the facilities and explaining how they worked, he was presented as "veterinarian and manager of the Finca de Uga", and in the labels he appeared as "master cheesemaker".
Fabelo "was invoked" by Rosa "for the benefit of his interests"
On the other hand, the prosecutor also added that in the inspection carried out in Stratvs in February 2013, and in which technicians and experts participated, Francisco Fabelo was "invoked by Juan Francisco Rosa as a witness for the benefit of his interests", to "question the impartiality of the Cabildo official Joana Macías".
And Rosa did the same, according to the prosecutor, when he "challenged" this expert, alleging that there was an "enmity" but "without justifying it". At that time, the businessman also cited "expressly both Mr. Fabelo and the Cabildo secretary, Francisco Perdomo, in support of his obscure claims".
The president also, based on the criteria of other Cabildo lawyers, later publicly and in the Courts questioned the content of the latest report prepared by Joana Macías at the request of the Stratvs judge, in which she confirmed the illegality of the winery and even warned of "nullity defects" in the new Plan de La Geria. San Ginés even announced the presentation of a 'counter-report' in the Court, although he finally did not do so. At the time, in an order, Judge Silvia Muñoz recalled that "trying to influence" the technicians may even constitute a crime.
"He does not blush when making public statements"
Both the judge and the prosecutor also referred to the public statements made by Francisco Fabelo about the Stratvs winery in some media. "He does not blush when making public statements not only in favor of the winery object of the proceedings, but expressly against the precautionary measure adopted by the (judge) investigating the case, even veiledly insinuating the existence of a persecution against Stratvs", the prosecutor pointed out, in response to the appeal filed by one of the defendants, against the decision not to request that report from environmental technicians of the Cabildo.
Also the judge, when rejecting that appeal, pointed out as a "notorious, known and ostensible fact the public statements of the aforementioned councilor, in which he has included assessments on the legal situation of the Stratvs complex". Therefore, she considered "plausible the partiality of the report", in case it had been commissioned to the Environment area of the Cabildo, so she concluded that the "impartiality" of the institution in this specific case "was in question".
