The former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, and the secretary of the City Council, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, both accused in the case of the alleged plot to grant illegal licenses in Playa Blanca, testified last week in Court and offered opposing views on the granting of said licenses.
Reyes and Fuentes, in their second statement in this case in court, offered conflicting versions in several aspects and the former mayor even contradicted some of his previous statements. The versions of both differ mainly in clarifying who and how it was decided that the City Council should not communicate the licenses to the Cabildo of Lanzarote and in general all the legal advice and what the process was to grant the licenses.
Reyes declared last week that when issuing his decrees he was not advised by anyone, since the technical office was far away, although in the same statement he later says that he did not prepare the decrees nor did he draft them, that the files were made completely in the technical office and the support and advice was done by the secretary and other lawyers, whose names he does not remember.
In his previous statement, in June 2007, as well as in the oral trial last March, which ended up costing him a sentence of ten years of disqualification from public office for urban planning prevarication, Reyes assured that he never drafted the decrees and even that he did not read them.
During that statement, in 2007, he assured that the decree granting a license was prepared by the secretary "relying on other technicians", whose names he also did not say, and that the advice was given by the technical office, while the certificates of granting licenses by silence were made by the secretary of the technical office and taken to him to sign, along with some official who was telling him what he was signing since he did not read it.
The secretary, for his part, declared last week that when the appropriate procedures were carried out to grant a license, it was then passed to the mayor to sign or prepare the decree and that they passed him the decree already signed by the mayor.
Legal report
Regarding the legal report and advice, it is also not clear, according to the statements of both Reyes and Fuentes and Pablo Carrasco (municipal surveyor, also accused), who gave the guidelines. Carrasco understands that the secretary's report is a legal report, as does Reyes, who says that the legal knowledge is provided by the secretary, but he points out that there were no lawyers in the City Council and that his report was "orientative and procedural" and was not a legal report, as he was not required to do so.
The prosecutor and the prosecution asked about the role of the lawyer and also accused Felipe Fernández Camero. Reyes said that the legal advice was the responsibility of the secretary and other lawyers, that in relation to the licenses the advice was from Fernández Camero, although he later specifies when questioned by the latter's defense that said advice was regarding judicial procedures.
Contradictions
He also stated that Camero had been working with the City Council since 1998 and that assignments were made to other lawyers but he does not know who they are. The former mayor pointed out that the secretary would make the consultations to this lawyer by telephone calls, that he never consulted him.
For his part, Vicente Bartolomé declared that in 1998 three lawyers were working with the City Council, one of them Camero, and they were made punctual consultations because they were not on staff. He says that he never consulted Camero to process the licenses and that he always issued written opinions.
He assures that he knew how the legal advisors were paid until 1998 but after that he does not know if the same procedure is followed, neither with Camero nor with anyone.
The prosecutor asks the municipal secretary what advisory services Camero provided and how is it possible, if he was paid, that the secretary, who also acts as auditor, does not know, and that if it was advice for the mayor, why did the City Council pay and how is this possible if the former mayor assures that he had no advisors.
ACN Press
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