The Environment and Urban Planning Prosecutor's Office has presented this Tuesday a bill of indictment against 16 individuals and one legal entity in the so-called Stratvs case, "for the authorization and construction of a macro-complex with industrial and tourist facilities in one of the most protected places on the island of Lanzarote, the Protected Natural Space of La Geria, outside of all current urban planning regulations."
The State Attorney General's Office has made public a statement informing of the presentation of this document. In the press release, it states that "after a complex but agile investigation lasting just two years, the Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against the promoter of the work, against the architect who designed and directed the project, and against the operating company of Stratvs, but also against officials and public officials of the three administrations involved (the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Yaiza City Council), for crimes related to urban corruption, for having granted permits knowing of their flagrant illegality, and for not having adopted control measures despite the fact that what was built and the activity carried out did not conform to what had been illegitimately authorized."
The Prosecutor's Office emphasizes that "the authorizations, granted in contravention of current regulations, allowed the restoration of an old house of ethnographic value and the construction of an underground warehouse-winery of 900 square meters of surface area, but what was carried out was the demolition of the house, and the construction of a macro-complex of about 12,000 square meters built on a surface of more than 9,000 square meters of protected space, which includes an industrial winery, a restaurant, kitchens, a shop-cafeteria, several terraces, walls and other facilities."
In addition, "one of the most clearly differentiated elements of this protected space, such as the Barranco del Obispo, was irreversibly altered, and at least 44,000 cubic meters were excavated, with the consequent extraction of stone, earth and rofe, this last non-renewable resource and which is part of the elements to be protected in La Geria."
The administrations "did not put any obstacles to the excesses"
In an extensive bill of indictment, the prosecutor of the Environment and Urban Planning Section of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Las Palmas, Ignacio Stampa, emphasizes that the public administrations that should ensure compliance with urban planning and environmental legality "did not put any obstacles to the urban planning and speculative excesses of the businessman, nor to his desire for profit, at the cost of seriously attacking the island's environment to the detriment of all the people of Lanzarote."
The State Attorney General's Office states in its statement that the "exhaustive investigation" has been carried out by the head of the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 5 of Arrecife, Silvia Muñoz, and in it the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Civil Guard has "actively participated." In addition, it has had detailed expert reports issued by experts from the Agency for the Protection of the Urban and Natural Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands (APMUN), the Island Council of Lanzarote, the Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, and the Technical Unit of the Coordinating Prosecutor's Office for the Environment and Urban Planning of the State Attorney General's Office.
The Prosecutor's Office concludes that in addition to the illegality of the authorizations and the illegal nature of the constructions, the activity of the "Stratvs" complex has caused a "serious risk" to the balance of the Protected Space and even to the health of people, in view of the pollution parameters of the discharges from the facilities, highlighting that this pollution was only stopped by the Investigating Court, by preventively closing the complex in the face of the permissiveness of the competent municipal and island authorities.
A "cluster of documentary falsehoods"
The Prosecutor's Office also highlights the "cluster of documentary falsehoods" carried out by the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa Marrero, promoter of the complex, "in order to satisfy his interests", and which include "both the simulation of the data of the projects presented, as well as the falsification of public deeds to obtain financing in at least four million euros, as well as the legal appearance of holding the ownership of the land on which Stratvs sits, and which does not belong to him."
The Prosecutor's Office formulates charges against 16 individuals and one legal entity for crimes against land management, historical heritage and the environment, documentary falsification, usurpation of real estate, theft of goods of historical value, fraud, influence peddling, urban planning prevarication and environmental prevarication.
The Environment Prosecutor's Office also demands the demolition of the Stratvs macro-complex, the definitive closure of the activity, and the nullity of all licenses and permits that were granted, as well as of the public deeds and registry entries made in relation to the "Stratvs" complex.
