Penitentiary Institutions, the governing body of the Ministry of the Interior in charge of managing Spanish prisons, has granted the third degree to the former mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Miguel Zerolo, sentenced to seven years in prison for the Las Teresitas case. Since July 20, Zerolo can now be released from prison (Tenerife II) during the day and return at night to sleep.
Zerolo has been in prison since April 1, 2019. In March of that year, the Supreme Court (TS) confirmed the sentence handed down by the Provincial Court of Tenerife, in 2017, against the defendants in the Las Teresitas case. In addition to that of Miguel Zerolo also confirmed the sentences of the former mayor of Urbanism Manuel Parejo, for another seven years; the former secretary of the Planning Department, Juan Víctor Reyes, aged four years and six months; the former manager of Urban Planning, José Tomás Martín, four years old; and the businessmen Antonio Plasencia (already in semi-liberty for health reasons) and Ignacio González (died in prison), five years and three months each.
The legal case, which dates back to the year 2001, arose after the sale operation, carried out between the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (buyer) and the company Inversiones Las Teresitas (seller), of the front of that chicharrera beach for an amount of 52.5 million euros, when the appraisal price was much lower, according to the expert reports. The amount paid for the eleven plots on which the operation focused exceeded the real value of said land by 30 million, according to the municipal architect Pía Oramas.
The Supreme Court ruling confirmed the “collusion and cooperation of those convicted in altering the price of the land, to the detriment of the municipal coffers” which gives rise to “a crime of embezzlement and prevarication, since resolutions were issued knowing their injustice to achieve the intended purpose.”
The case of Las Teresitas is one of the largest judicial cases for crimes of corruption instructed in the Canary Islands. In the more than 160 pages of the sentence, it is stated that Zerolo played a “managerial” role in a complex “criminal plot” that was intended to enrich the beneficiary businessmen. He promoted by the municipal plenary session the approval, first, of the agreement for the sale of the land; secondly, the transfer of public uses without financial consideration and, finally, a modification of the uses of the land that guaranteed a millionaire surplus value to the sellers.
After the sentences of the high court, which confirmed the convictions of the accused, the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife ordered their immediate admission to prison, “due to the risk of flight due to the presumed economic capacity of those convicted and the seriousness of the sentences ». On April 1, 2019, Zerolo voluntarily presented himself to the Police and was transferred to Tenerife II. After several unsuccessful attempts, the former mayor has now achieved the third degree, granted by Penitentiary Institutions, since the Court had rejected it.
Precisely, on July 4 of this year, the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife had issued an order dismissing the appeal filed by Zerolo against the order of the Penitentiary Surveillance Court number 2 that in February, «confirming resolutions prior to the Tenerife II penitentiary center”, denied him the condition of semi-liberty.
Finally, and despite several court orders rejecting the pass to the third degree, Penitentiary Institutions have granted the former mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife the possibility of leaving prison during the day. The Public Prosecutor will not appeal said decision, transfers the communication office of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC).
More cases
The one on Las Teresitas beach is not the only case in which the name of Miguel Zerolo appears as mayor of the capital. Last year, the Criminal Court 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, as a result of a complaint filed by the municipal group of United We Can (UP), issued an order in which they are charged – together with Pablo Abril Martorell (then CEO of the Mixed Water Company (Emmasa) – alleged crimes of prevarication and embezzlement of public funds, due to the collection by the Sacyr company of a fee from Emmasa, of which it is the majority shareholder. of the board of directors that approved the payment of the 59 million euros resulting from the fee in question.
The former mayor also weighs an eight-year disqualification sentence for another third case, García Cabrera, for a crime of administrative prevarication. The TS convicted Miguel Zerolo in 2014, considering as proven facts that he irregularly awarded some works, between 2003 and 2006, at the former Hermanos García Cabrera Institute, in the Ofra neighborhood of Santa Cruz. According to the ruling, the former mayor was aware that IMES SA had been awarded the remodeling works of these facilities without having mediated a public tender for it. Zerolo would have ignored repeated warnings from the municipal auditors.
