The children of the former mayor of Yaiza, Beatriz and José Francisco Abel Reyes, were released on Saturday with charges, while the judge extended the detention of their parents, José Francisco Reyes and Antonia Torres, when 72 hours had passed since their arrest. During the day, the woman and the two children testified before the magistrate of the Court of Instruction Number 2 of Arrecife, María Dolores García Benítez, who is investigating the case for the alleged plot for the granting of illegal licenses in Playa Blanca.
For his part, the former mayor of Yaiza and vice president of the PNL, José Francisco Reyes, who was also arrested last Wednesday, did not testify this Saturday, so the judge extended his detention and until this Sunday he remained deprived of liberty and incommunicado. A decision that the magistrate also extended to his wife, even though she was the first to testify. The two were transferred back to police facilities, pending Reyes' appearance before María Dolores García Benítez and prosecutor Ignacio Stampa.
Money laundering
After interrogating Antonia Torres, the judge took a statement from Beatriz Reyes, who left the Courts at around 4 p.m. After a recess, José Francisco Abel Reyes testified, who was also released with charges shortly before 8:30 p.m.
The two children of the former mayor of Yaiza would be charged with an alleged crime of money laundering, for having properties in their name or having made purchases with money allegedly obtained illegally by their father. And it is that in this case, Reyes is accused of, supposedly, having received money from businessmen in exchange for granting illegal licenses.
Reyes' other adult daughter, Noelia, would also be charged with money laundering. In her case, she was arrested in Barcelona, the same day as the rest of her family, but she was not transferred to Lanzarote and was released with charges, after testifying in the Courts of the Catalan city.
Other defendants
In this case, which began more than three years ago and is not the only one that Reyes has pending, the former mayor is charged with alleged crimes of bribery (bribes), embezzlement of funds, urban prevarication, influence peddling and money laundering.
Along with Reyes, the lawyer Felipe Fernández Camero, the secretary of the Yaiza City Council, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, and Pablo Carrasco Cabrera, from the Technical Office of the southern Consistory, were already charged in this process.
