The first case opened for the illegal granting of a license on the Costa Roja plot has taken a new turn, reopening the proceedings against Luis Lleó, charging the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, and the City Council secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, with new crimes, and adding two new defendants: the lawyer Felipe Fernández Camero and the jurist Rafael Entrena Cuesta, recognized throughout Spain for his contributions to administrative law.
In an order issued on March 22, the judge of the Court of Instruction Number 3 of Arrecife, Ángela López-Yuste, points out that "it is appropriate to initiate" new preliminary proceedings and reopen those that had been dismissed in 2010. At that time, the judge dismissed the charges against the businessman Luis Lleó and maintained those against the former mayor and two municipal technicians, understanding that there were indications of urban planning prevarication, but that the crimes of bribery of which they had been accused were not "duly accredited".
Now new proceedings have been added to the case, which has incorporated relevant data from the "Unión" case. Among other things, a report by the Civil Guard on the documentation seized from Luis Lleó when he was arrested within the "Unión" Operation has been key.
Along with these new proceedings, the judge went to the Yaiza City Council at the beginning of this month, so that with "urgent character" it would send to the Court the entire file relating to a payment made by the City Council to the professor Rafael Entrena Cuesta, who in May 2007 prepared a report on the license granted to Costa Roja by José Francisco Reyes. At the request of the Prosecutor's Office, the judge requested the documents on the commission of the work, the invoice and the contract from the City Council, "in order to investigate the alleged existence of a crime of prevarication by Luis Lleó and Rafael Entrena".
Finally, in addition to that crime, the judge has also introduced the crime of fraud against the administration and embezzlement of public funds, due to the alleged irregularities in that payment. In his order, he agrees to charge the professor Rafael Entrena, as well as the lawyer Felipe Fernández Camero, with the crimes of continued urban planning prevarication, administrative prevarication, fraud against the administration and embezzlement of public funds. For their part, José Francisco Reyes and Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, who were already charged with urban planning prevarication, add new charges of prevarication, fraud against the administration and embezzlement.
As for Lleó, the proceedings against him are reopened and he is once again charged in the case this time for continued urban planning prevarication, administrative prevarication, fraud against the administration and embezzlement. In addition, Lleó also remains charged in the "Unión" case, where he is accused of a crime of bribery, for allegedly offering a bribe to Carlos Espino, through Fernando Becerra, to unblock the construction of that same plot.
When that offer occurred, this first case was already underway and was investigating the license that Reyes granted to Lleó to build more than 1,000 homes and 200 commercial premises on that plot. The courts had stopped its development, after it was denounced by the Cabildo, which is why Lleó attempted that alleged bribe to Espino, who was then Minister of Territorial Policy. Finally, the businessman will have to respond criminally in two different cases for the two attempts to urbanize that plot.