César Romero Pamparacuatro is not the only judge who will be leaving the island next September. The magistrate who is investigating the other major case open against corruption in Lanzarote, for the alleged plot for the granting of illegal licenses, has also obtained a position in another destination, specifically in Ciudad Real.
Thus, María Dolores García Benítez will leave the Court of Instruction Number 2 of Arrecife, which has been in charge of the investigation of the case opened against the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, for four years, and which already has about thirty defendants among politicians, technicians, businessmen and relatives of Reyes himself.
In the last year, this case also took a huge leap after the arrest of the former mayor, his wife and three of his children. In his statement before the judge and prosecutor Ignacio Stampa, José Francisco Reyes admitted that he had received money for the granting of illegal licenses, and gave the names of several businessmen, who became defendants in this judicial process.
However, after "signing" lawyer Pablo Luna for his defense, who also represents the former mayor of Marbella, Marisol Yagüe, in the Malaya case, Reyes changed his strategy and retracted his initial confession. The former mayor spent two months in provisional prison after his arrest, and since December 2009 he has been released on bail of 120,000 euros.
Accelerate proceedings
During this time, some of the businessmen accused of allegedly paying bribes have appeared in court to testify, although others are still pending to testify. Among them, the Basques who were denounced a few months ago by a witness, who claims that these businessmen made an alleged delivery of 500,000 euros for licenses in the Playa Blanca Partial Plan.
Now, with the departure of María Dolores García Benítez, another judge will take charge of this court and this case, because in her case a commission of services has not been requested. However, the intention could be to accelerate the proceedings to try to close, or at least in its final phase, a case that has been under investigation for four years. In that case, activity would accelerate in the Courts in the coming weeks of August and the first of September.
In addition to the Reyes case, García Benítez is also handling the process against the mayor of Teguise, Juan Pedro Hernández, which arises from the same complaint by the general secretary of the PSOE in Lanzarote, but which was separated into another case. Alleged crimes of bribery in the granting of illegal licenses are also being investigated, and the Udyco, as with Reyes, tracked the assets of Juan Pedro Hernández and his environment, although the result of that report has not been revealed so far.
