The Penitentiary Surveillance Court Number 1 of the Canary Islands has issued an order dismissing the appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office and maintaining the third degree to Dimas Martín, according to the EFE agency. The leader of the PIL is serving an eight-year prison sentence for embezzlement of public funds and two crimes against the Public Treasury and Social Security for the case of the Agroindustrial Complex of Teguise.
Thanks to this order, which describes the "trajectory of the inmate" as "very positive", Dimas Martín will be able to continue going to prison only to sleep, although an appeal for reform against this decision is still possible.
In fact, this is not the first time that the Prosecutor's Office has appealed the third degree granted to the leader of the PIL and, already on the previous occasion, the Penitentiary Surveillance Court rejected his appeal and it was later the Provincial Court of Las Palmas that upheld the prosecutor's appeal and annulled the third degree penitentiary, in May 2008.
However, shortly after, specifically on December 16, Penitentiary Institutions again granted this penitentiary benefit to Martín. That same month, the Prosecutor's Office decided to appeal again the third degree, because it considered that the necessary conditions are not met. Among them, not having yet served half of the imposed sentence.
In addition, the Prosecutor pointed out in his appeal that the leader of the PIL has not paid the payment of the civil liability to which he was sentenced, although the Surveillance Court understands that this is not a reason to withdraw the third degree, given that "the commitment of the inmate to face it according to his economic income" is recorded, "the request for the installment payment requested to the sentencing court" and "the copy of the corresponding proof of income with respect to the payments made by the inmate since February 2008".
FOURTH SENTENCE
The one of the Agroindustrial Complex is the fourth sentence of Martín, who was already in provisional prison although he was not convicted of an alleged real estate fraud for the case of Los Cocoteros in the late seventies.
The convictions have occurred for the Roger Deign case, in 1993, for bribery; for disobedience for the Guatiza bathing area, and for bribery in the purchase of the vote of a PP councilor of Arrecife in 1995. The one of the Complex is the longest sentence he has had to face.