The former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, the municipal secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes and the head of the Technical Office, Antonio Lorenzo, are summoned to testify this Friday in the Court of Instruction number 3 of Arrecife at 9:45 as defendants for the granting of the execution license for the Costa Roja project in Playa Blanca, an urbanization of more than a thousand homes.
In an order of January 27, the presiding magistrate of the Court, Ángela López-Yuste, dismissed the appeals for reconsideration of the three defendants against the resolution of that Court of March 2010 by which it was agreed to file the complaint for bribery against the developer Luis Lleó but to continue with the case in abbreviated procedure. The defendants requested the filing of the proceedings.
The Court considers that the facts under investigation may constitute a crime of urban planning malfeasance. The order states that both the licenses granted for the basic project and the segregation of the plot infringed the regulations in view of the classification of the land and that they were granted with clear infringement of the applicable administrative procedure.
The judge emphasizes that despite all this, both the secretary and the technician issued favorable reports and that the former mayor issued the decrees of the licenses knowing of their illegality.
The case
The Costa Roja case began in December 2006 when Reyes granted the developer Luis Lleó the license for the basic project. The Cabildo, which became aware of its concession through lavozdelanzarote.com, filed an administrative appeal in April 2007. In addition, the secretary of the PSOE, Carlos Espino, filed a criminal complaint against these three defendants.
In June of that year, Reyes granted the license for the execution project when he was acting mayor, two weeks after the elections of May 2007. The urbanization was not built because the Administrative Court number 5 of Las Palmas agreed to the request of the Cabildo to apply precautionary measures and suspended the license.
This plot is what gives rise to the beginning of Operation Unión, since the developer Luis Lleó tried to bribe Espino through Fernando Becerra to achieve the unblocking of the project. Espino reported the fact to the Civil Guard and the investigation began, which later led to other plots due to the fact that multiple indications of other types of crimes were found thanks to the telephone taps.
ACN Press
