The Prosecutor's Office appeal, which led the Court to reopen the case of the demolition of the historic building at number 33 León y Castillo street in Arrecife, considers that in order to get to the bottom of the matter, the attempted demolition of number 37, also protected and owned by the same owner, must also be investigated, because it was part of the same urban planning operation, designed in the General Planning Plan.
The prosecutor emphasizes that the owner is the same, Inmobiliaria Chimida, and says that "if the Chamber compares the procedure followed and the participants in the two cases, together with the existence of the urban project under study for a significant extension of land in the city's main commercial artery, it will come to the conclusion that the steps requested by the Prosecutor's Office are necessary and pertinent to get to the bottom of the matter under investigation."
The Court considered that the proceedings contain "incriminating elements regarding the actions of the accused" and that "there are arguments to consider that the property (the building) is singularly protected." The former mayor María Isabel Déniz and four members of her Government Board from 2006 (Manuel Pérez Gopar, Luis Morales, Juan Antonio Santana and Nuria Cabrera), as well as the owners of the property, Inmobiliaria Chimida, two employees of the municipal technical office, Sheila Betancort and Penélope Tabares, and the former head of this office, Rafael Arrocha, are accused in the case. They are charged with the crimes of prevarication and against historical heritage.
In addition, the Prosecutor's Office requests the indictment of the former head of the Local Police until two years ago, José Antonio Lasso, for a possible crime of falsifying an official document. The Prosecutor's Office considers that "as Head of the Local Police, he issued a mendacious report on February 3, 2009, stating that there is no record of any intervention by the Local Police "or any other data" in connection with the demolition of the building, in terms similar to the mendacity in Rafael Arrocha's report."
Seprona Complaint
The events date back to January 2006, when the City Council granted demolition permission for that house to Inmobiliaria Chimida, which demolished the property. Proceedings were opened in 2008 following a complaint from the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard (Seprona), as it was demolished without a report from the Island Heritage Commission and when an agreement to suspend demolition licenses was in force, because a new planning was being processed.
The "Hierro street urban action" included in the General Plan that was not definitively approved, consisted of creating a pedestrian connection between Real street and Colegio street, and to carry it out, number 33 had to be demolished but it also affected numbers 35 and 37, owned by the same owners.
The Prosecutor's Office requests that several steps be taken: it requests that some conversations recorded in Operation Unión that are related to this matter be incorporated, as well as that the corporate relationship between the head of the technical office, Rafael Arrocha, and the owner of the property, Fernando González, be taken into account, in addition to clarifying the City Council's efforts to evacuate the tenants of number 37 alleging a danger of collapse. The statement of a jewelry store employee is requested as a witness.
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