The judge considers that there is no crime and files the procedure for prevarication against the councilor Mª Jesús Pinto
The court decrees the dismissal of the case for purchases of the Social Welfare department
De Zárate demands public apologies from the spokespersons of PSOE and Compromís-Los Verdes
The judge of the Court of Instruction number 4 of Benidorm has agreed "the provisional dismissal" of the case opened by the purchases made by the Department of Social Welfare in the Christmas campaign of 2016 to understand that "the act does not appear properly justified the perpetration of the crime ". The spokesman of the municipal group of the Popular Party, José Ramón González de Zárate, has informed of this judicial decision in press conference, in which he has been accompanied by the majority of popular councilors, in which he has emphasized that the Public Prosecutor's Office also he had requested the dismissal of the case and in which he had clarified that no notification had been received that the order had been appealed within the established legal period.
De Zárate recalled that the case began after the complaint filed by the Observatory against Corruption after a press conference offered by the spokesman of the PSOE, Rubén Martínez. In that hearing, and according to his own press release, Martínez maintained that the socialists "do not consider the matter ethical and legal" and questioned whether the most economical offer had been sought.
Following the complaint, the Councilor for Citizen Participation and Consumption, Mª Jesús Pinto, was summoned to testify as an investigator for the commission of an alleged crime of prevarication. This citation obeys, according to the complaint filed, that the Department of Welfare acquired part of the Christmas lots of products for families without resources in a company linked to the family of Pinto.
De Zárate has stated that the Office of the Prosecutor has noted that "in view of the certification of the secretary of the City Council, it turns out that none of the councils that holds the investigated have participated in the recruitment process," and that the testimony of a social worker It follows that "the selection" of the merchant "was made at random from the Internet, and that the award to this company was made because it offered the most economic budget." Consequently, for the Prosecutor's Office "there are not sufficient elements that allow integrating the facts denounced."
The spokesman of the PP has stressed that the decision of the judge and the prosecutor corroborates what was already noted by the local government at the time, and added that the whole issue has been "a maneuver" drawn by "a political criminal like Ruben Martinez" that "he has only wanted to harm a good person like Mª Jesús Pinto, who works for the good of Benidorm and its people both in the public and in the private sphere".
De Zárate has blamed this maneuver against Pinto on "the indecency" and "the weakness" of Martínez within his group and of his own party - "the one that is leading to the abyss" - and has remarked that "we are not going to allow the honor of our partner or of any other member of this municipal group is undermined. "
In adition, and in view of the court ruling, Martínez has been demanded to "apologize" for everything declared in these months in the media and social networks on this matter, and also "for being who from the beginning has been acting as speaker and instigator of an unfounded complaint ". In addition, he has claimed the same apology from the spokesman of Compromís-Los Verdes, Josep Bigorra, for being "part of that clamp with the PSOE" and have asked for the resignation of the PP councilor.
"That they apologize publicly and then, if they believe, even minimally in transparency, that they explain to all the people the alleged illegal financing of their parties, which, in the case of the PSOE, points directly to Benidorm and to this City Council at the time of socialist government", he added.
Study of possible legal actions
The popular spokesman has advanced that "the lawyers" who have been in charge of the case "are studying some irregularities" detected in case they were constituting a crime. Specifically, it has referred to possible violations of Royal Decree 2568/1986 on the Organization, Operation and Legal Regime of Local Entities and Organic Law 15/1999 on the Protection of Personal Data, which provides for sanctions of up to 300,000. euros
When asked by journalists, De Zárate has clarified that the complainants "did not request any documentation from the City Council," so that the information provided to the Prosecutor's Office could have come from a member of the corporation.