The Dean Judge of Lanzarote, Gloria Poyatos, has announced that this week the Court of Instruction Number 5 of Arrecife, whose owner is the magistrate Silvia Muñoz, has managed to close the investigation of four of the 11 separate pieces that are included within the "Unión" case. Among them, the Dean Judge has mentioned the Costa Roja case and the Marina de Naos plot. She has also pointed out that the criminal cases affecting the Stratvs winery, with 18 defendants, and the Insular Theater are "very advanced". In addition, there are other "two small pieces" that have been filed.
This was explained by Poyatos in an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, where she assured that it is "possible" that the investigation of the Unión case will be completed by the "second half of 2014", if the presiding judge continues to have reinforcement. "We have 50 percent of the separate pieces whose investigation is almost finished. After that, it will be elevated to the Provincial Court to hold trials or to the Criminal Courts of Lanzarote, depending on the type of crime," she said.
Poyatos wanted to make it clear that she will "fight" for the trials that derive from the "Unión" case to be held on the island of Lanzarote. "We have the right for these serious procedures that have occurred here to be held here," she defended.
"Great work capacity" of Silvia Muñoz
Poyatos has highlighted the "competence and great work capacity" of the current head of the Court of Instruction Number 5, Silvia Muñoz, who is "exclusively" in charge of the "Unión" case, since she has reinforcement for "civil matters". "It is necessary to highlight the great push that Doña Silvia has given to this matter", the Dean Judge insisted. She even believes that if the reinforcement for this judge, which is "a purely economic issue", had arrived earlier, "it is possible that in two years since 2008 the investigation would have been completed and today there would be judicial sentences of the procedures".
The Dean Judge has recalled that the Unión case is one of the "most important cases of poly-delinquency, of corruption, that has been processed in the Spanish State". "It comes from a telephone intervention that lasted for a period of a year and a half and that pursued a certain type of crime. It was a surprise of the investigation that ended up observing not one crime, but a plurality of criminal actions," Poyatos recalled.