The First Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas has ratified the sentence that condemned Dimas Martín to two years in prison for the case of the Los Dolores bathrooms. However, it has admitted "in part" the appeal filed by the defense, but only with respect to the fine. Thus, Martín has managed to have the daily fine reduced from 10 euros to 6 euros for 18 months. Thus, instead of having to pay 5,400 euros in compensation, he will have to pay about 3,240 euros. This sentence is now final and no appeal is possible.
In a resolution dated March 26, the Provincial Court states that "it fully accepts the facts proven in the appealed sentence." This is the sentence of the judge of the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife, who condemned Martín after considering it proven that he committed the crimes of urban planning malfeasance, damage against Heritage and a crime against territorial planning. In addition to the two years in prison, the sentence added eight years of disqualification from public office.
For this same case, the judge acquitted the other two defendants of the same crimes, the former Minister of Public Works of the Cabildo for the PIL and current Minister for CC, Sergio Machín (CC), and the former head of the Technical Office of the Cabildo, José Manuel Fiestas.
With this appeal presented in the Provincial Court, Martín's defense intended that his client would achieve free acquittal. The lawyer considered that in some cases the fundamental right to the presumption of innocence of Martín could have been violated and also appealed to the "undue delays" of the process. The Prosecutor's Office opposed this appeal, with a 69-page objection brief, and the private prosecution, which presented an 11-page brief.
The Provincial Court considers that the judge of the Criminal Court of Arrecife examined "exhaustively each and every one of the factual circumstances that she reflected in her conviction about the reality of what happened, breaking down the different tests carried out in the plenary, with full submission to the principles of orality, contradiction and immediacy, projecting a reasonable and reasoned point of view fully adapted to her essential impartiality".
Reduction of the fine
What Dimas Martín has achieved with this appeal is a reduction of the fine from 10 to 6 euros per day, which he must pay for 18 months. "10 euros were set without further reasoning than the presumption of the convict's capacity to face it," the Court states in its resolution.
Regarding the rest of the appeal, the Provincial Court maintains that "the appellant extracts biased and interested conclusions that are based exclusively on that part of the evidence that benefits him, completely ignoring the other sources of evidence that harm him".
"Being very detailed the analysis that the judge of instance makes of the different evidentiary elements with which she has counted to form her conviction, giving a reasoned response to the different approaches of the prosecution and the defense, and finally fitting the facts that she declares proven with a broad argument in the criminal types appreciated. No absurd, arbitrary, or manifestly erroneous reasonings are observed, so it must be concluded in the correctness of the reflective process that has externalized her sentence," explains the Court.
Volcanic flow
The facts of this case date back to June 2003 when, a few days after being elected president of the Cabildo, Dimas Martín decided to build public bathrooms next to the hermitage of Los Dolores. He built them in the volcanic flow where legend attributes to the Virgen de Los Dolores having stopped the lava from the eruptions of the 18th century. The PSOE was the one who denounced the facts.
In the first sentence issued by the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife, the judge considered it proven that there was no project for the construction of the bathrooms, nor a municipal license nor a prior report from Heritage, and that Martín, knowing these circumstances, allowed the volcanic flow to be destroyed.
The Court rejected another oral hearing
The Provincial Court of Las Palmas already had to rule on this case at the end of January. On that occasion, the First Section rejected the request presented by the defense of Dimas Martín in the case of the Los Dolores bathrooms, which requested the holding of a new oral hearing.
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