He assures that the Justice system has admitted the criminal complaint filed by the socialist group of the Cabildo "as it admits others because it is now fashionable to file complaints" and maintains that there is a persecution against Yaiza, while, according to him, "the Cabildo makes agreements with promoting businessmen in Costa Teguise". "I have not committed any crime", José Francisco Reyes declared as soon as he left the judge's office. And to support his words, he referred to the technical and legal reports that, according to the mayor of Yaiza, show that the plot of almost one million square meters where he planned to locate about 4,000 new residents "is a land with all the services and consolidated".
But the truth is that the Justice system has already begun to rule in the opposite direction. On the one hand, the Court of Instruction No. 8 of Arrecife has taken charge of the case after admitting the complaint filed by the socialists and signed by the councilor Carlos Espino, and on the other hand, the Provincial Court of Las Palmas has decreed the precautionary suspension of the license, so that any possibility of starting the works on the Cortijo de Costa Roja plot is blocked, until the judicial procedure initiated by the Cabildo, which considers the urban planning license illegal, is completed.
This is not the only case that the mayor has open. In fact, he is also accused of alleged crimes of malfeasance, influence peddling, bribery and money laundering for the massive granting of licenses, within an open investigation, which included telephone tapping, following a complaint filed by the former councilor of Territorial Policy of the Cabildo, Carlos Espino. "It is the second complaint and from the same inventors", Reyes told this media shortly before entering to testify.
Calm before appearing before the judge
At 10:24 minutes, José Francisco Reyes has crossed the door of Judge Nicolás Pita's office to testify, once again, before the Justice system for the granting of licenses in the municipality of Yaiza. On this occasion, the southern mayor is charged with a alleged crime of malfeasance for granting the license for the 1,000 homes, which last February was made public by La Voz de Lanzarote.
Reyes insists that "the best neighbor can file a complaint against one", and assured that he felt "perfectly" before entering to testify with his lawyer, Felipe Fernández Camero. A statement in which, for an hour, he had to give an account of why he granted a license to build the Costa Roja residential complex, the largest urban planning project on the island for which 1,012 homes, 220 commercial premises and more than 2,500 parking spaces would be located north of Playa Blanca, on non-urban land, ignoring the Island Planning Plan (PIOT) of 1991 and hiding it from the Cabildo, despite the fact that he is obliged to notify it of the urban planning permits granted by the City Council.
Meanwhile, in the corridors of the Courts, the town clerk, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, who was summoned at 11:30 in the morning and arrived at the judicial offices at about 10:20, was also waiting for his turn to testify as an accused in this case. His statement lasted for an hour, while José Francisco Reyes waited for his departure in a nearby cafeteria. At the end of this week it will be the turn of the third defendant in this case, the head of the Municipal Technical Office, Antonio Lorenzo Tejera.
