The former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, has already entered prison. Shortly before 8:00 p.m. this Thursday, Reyes arrived at the Tahíche Penitentiary Center with his son, José Francisco Abel Reyes. After taking a bag with his belongings out of the car, the former mayor walked the last few meters alone to the prison gates. With his admission, the former mayor has complied with the mandate of the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife, which last week gave him a maximum period of 10 days, which expired at midnight this Thursday, to voluntarily enter prison.
For Reyes, this is his second time in Tahíche, although the first time was in provisional detention, during the investigation of the Yate case. After his arrest in that case, the largest against him and which is pending trial, precautionary measures were issued depriving him of his liberty, although two and a half months later he was released on bail.
Now, he returns to serve his first prison sentence, for one of the separate pieces of the Unión case. Thus, he has also become the first defendant of Unión to enter prison with a final sentence. In that sentence that he began serving this Thursday, Reyes was sentenced to six months in prison and 12 years of disqualification for a continued crime of urban planning prevarication, for the granting of two illegal licenses for the construction of the house of Carlos Morales and Alexia of Greece, cousin of the King of Spain, in Puerto Calero. The ruling also annulled those licenses, which were granted with negative technical reports, although the new General Plan of Yaiza could allow their legalization.
In November 2014, Reyes himself agreed with the Prosecutor's Office's indictment, so the trial was not even held. In this way, he managed to reduce the sentence from the two years in prison initially requested by the prosecutor to six months in prison. However, what he has not managed to avoid is entering prison.
"Criminal recidivism" and "little respect for the legal system"
Initially, the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife, which was the one that issued the sentence, agreed to suspend the execution of the prison sentence, as it was less than two years. However, the prosecutor Javier Ródenas filed an appeal with the Provincial Court, which last May agreed with him.
"It is possible to speak of criminal dangerousness of the convicted person and the existing criminal proceedings against him cannot be ignored, together with said dangerousness", argued the order of the Second Section of the Court, which recalled that Reyes already has another conviction behind him (although technically it was not computable for this sentence), in addition to several pending cases for similar crimes.
"Both the seriousness of the facts and the criminal recidivism must be taken into account", insisted the order, which concluded that "what the aforementioned convictions show is the little respect that the convicted person has shown at all times for the legal system, having pending, at this time, criminal proceedings for crimes of a similar or identical nature". The Court transferred that order to the Court that issued the sentence, which had to initiate the procedure for its execution.
Four more cases about to go to trial
In addition to two convictions behind him (the one he is currently serving and another previous one, also for prevarication, in which he was only given a disqualification sentence), José Francisco Reyes has a long list of pending cases. In four of them, the investigation has already been completed and the Prosecutor's Office is asking for a total of more than 35 years in prison.
The largest open case against José Francisco Reyes is the Yate case, for the massive granting of illegal tourist licenses in Playa Blanca. Only in that procedure, for which the judge already ordered the opening of oral trial last December (although it is still without a date), the prosecutors Javier Ródenas and Ignacio Stampa (who signed the indictment together) are asking for 25 years in prison, for different crimes of bribery, embezzlement of public funds, money laundering and urban planning prevarication. Along with Reyes, in addition to Yaiza officials, his wife and three of his children will sit on the bench, for alleged money laundering crimes.
In addition, Reyes has three other cases in the final stretch to go to trial and with the indictment already presented. One of them is the Stratvs case, in which the prosecutor Ignacio Stampa is asking for 7 years in prison and 44 years of disqualification. The other two are for residential licenses granted in two different partial plans of Playa Blanca, the Montaña Roja and the Playa Blanca Partial Plan. In one of them they are asking for a year and a half in prison and in the other two years.
Other cases in the investigation phase
To these procedures we must add others that are still in the investigation phase. One of them is the Costa Roja case, for the license granted by Reyes to Luis Lleó to build more than 1,000 homes and 200 commercial premises, which was annulled by the Justice (that same plot later gave rise to the Unión case, with the alleged attempted bribery, which was denounced by Carlos Espino, to unblock the urbanization of that land).
In addition, there is also another case against Reyes that arose from the Yate case. From that procedure, a piece was separated with new proceedings for the payments made from the City Council to the lawyer Felipe Fernández Camero between 1998 and 2007, for services allegedly not provided, or contracted outside the established legal procedure.
In that case, in addition to José Francisco Reyes, Fernández Camero himself and the former municipal secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, are charged with alleged crimes of prevarication and embezzlement of public funds, among others.