The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has confirmed the sentence to 12 years of disablement imposed on former mayor of the Tenerife municipality of El Tanque Román Martín for a continuous crime of prevarication administration in relation to the opening and operation of a mini-residence and day center for the elderly.
The court agrees with the ruling handed down by the fifth section of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Court and appealed in that the facts constitute the imputed prevarication and affirms that the defendant “does not question in his appeal that his action was carried out at the margin of all proceedings and with a total lack of jurisdiction”, reports the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
Martín was aware of these circumstances, in addition to the fact that they were repeatedly revealed to him by the Town Hall Auditor Secretary and by the Municipal Technical Architect, which shows the arbitrariness of the resolutions he adopted, the result of his whim and his personal and exclusive will.” .
If the defendant considered that the establishment of a center for the elderly was necessary for the community, -indicates the Chamber- “the law arbitrated a specific procedure to which he had to adapt his action. In this way, his behavior undoubtedly constitutes a contradiction with the Legal System of such magnitude that it could be appreciated by anyone ”.
It points out that “it was not a mere illegality, which may be the product of an erroneous, mistaken or debatable interpretation, as so often happens in Law, but that the defendant acted in fact to do his will, with an absolute lack of of competition, and with disobservance of the most elementary rules of procedure, regardless of all administrative legality, broken down and detailed in the judgment of instance. It is a clear abuse of power that violated the basic pillar of a rule of law, such as the submission of public powers to the law.
He rejects the thesis of the former mayor who maintained that the only thing he was pursuing was the defense of the general interest, in response to the demands of the residents of the municipality to have a center for the elderly. In this sense, it notes that neither in the proven facts nor in the legal foundations of the judgments of instance and appeal it is stated at any time that the defendant acted guided by a general interest, but instead it is stated that “he imposed his capricious or arbitrary will to the detriment of the public interest”.
The court partly upheld the appeal filed by the convicted person who alleged, among other reasons, that the Provincial Court of Tenerife, whose sentence was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, imposed a penalty of special disqualification for employment or public office without specifying the jobs, positions and honors on which it fell.
Thus, the Supreme Court declares in its judgment, a presentation by Judge Carmen Lamela, that the penalty of disqualification must refer to the position of mayor, as well as to any other elective position of the Local Administration, the Administration of the Autonomous Communities and of the State Administration.
