Judge Silvia Muñoz has concluded the investigation of the Stratvs case and has ordered the opening of the abbreviated procedure, which is the final stretch before taking the case to trial. In an order dated March 13, the judge gives the Prosecutor's Office and the private accusations 20 days to present their respective indictment writings, after which the opening of oral trial will be agreed.
In her order, the judge emphasizes that the investigation has yielded "rational indications" of criminality to bring 17 people and a company, BTL Lanzarote, which owns the winery and is also accused in the case as a legal entity, to trial. Representing BTL, the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa has testified during the investigation, who in turn is the main defendant in the case also as a natural person.
Along with him, the architect of the winery, Miguel Ángel Armas Matallana, will be in the dock, who also owned part of the land where Stratvs was built. According to the judge, Rosa "agreed" with the architect so that, "through those alterations of reality that were necessary and with total disregard for urban planning regulations and protection of historical heritage and the environment, they would carry out the project, taking advantage of the political influences that were necessary." And all this, "being aware" that it was "impossible" to obtain licenses to build a new winery, a restaurant, a store and a museum, "with various lucrative activities", in the Protected Natural Landscape of La Geria.
In the absence of the qualification writings of the Prosecutor's Office and the private accusations, the judge accuses Juan Francisco Rosa of crimes against land planning and urbanism, a crime against historical heritage, another against the environment, crimes against the public administration, crimes against heritage and the socio-economic order, in its modality of usurpation and theft, as well as crimes of fraud and documentary falsification. As for Armas Matallana, he is accused of crimes of documentary falsification, crimes against land planning and the environment, a crime against historical heritage and another of usurpation.
Accused in three administrations
The rest of the accused who will go to trial are public officials and technicians from all the administrations involved: the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Yaiza City Council. On behalf of the Consistory, the current mayor, Gladys Acuña, the former mayor, José Francisco Reyes, the Councilor for Urban Planning, José Antonio Rodríguez, the former secretary (removed from his position by a previous conviction), Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, the technicians Pablo Carrasco and Andrés Morales, the person in charge of the Cadastre, Blas Noda, and the councilors who were part of the Governing Board together with Acuña when the opening of the winery was authorized, Leonardo Rodriguez, Juan Lorenzo Tavío and Evaristo García, are accused. All of them must answer for different crimes of prevarication, both urban and environmental, with the exception of Blas Noda, who is accused of falsification of a public document.
On behalf of the Cabildo, the judge considers that there are sufficient indications to bring to trial the engineer responsible for Classified Activities, Manuel Jesús Spinola Perdomo (also accused in the Unión case) and the manager of the Insular Water Council, José Juan Hernández Duchemín, who was one of the last to join the list of accused, for the authorization he gave to the Stratvs discharge system, despite the fact that there were reports that warned of the pollution it was causing. Spínola is accused of urban prevarication and Hernández Duchemín of an environmental prevarication crime.
As for the Government of the Canary Islands, three people remain accused, in relation to the initial construction permit that was granted to the winery. One of them was the general director of Urban Planning when the permit was granted, Juan César Muñoz Sosa; another was secretary of the Commission for Territorial Planning and Environment of the Canary Islands, Armando Villavicencio Delgado; and finally the one who was head of Services of the General Directorate of Urban Planning, Faustino García Márquez. The three are accused of urban prevarication.