The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has confirmed the sentence to 12 years of disqualification imposed at the end of 2020 on the former mayor of El Tanque Román Antonio Martín Cánaves for continued crime of administrative prevarication in relation to the opening and operation of a mini-residence and Day Center for the Elderly. The court agrees with the judgment under appeal that the facts constitute the imputed prevarication and affirms that the defendant “does not question in his appeal that his action was carried out outside of any procedure and with a total lack of competence, circumstances that do not only knew, but they were revealed to him repeatedly by the secretary-controller of the City Hall of El Tanque and by the municipal technical architect, which demonstrates the arbitrariness of the resolutions he adopted, the result of his whim and his personal and exclusive will”. The confirmation of this sentence, which is added to another of 14 years of disqualification for another crime of prevarication for irregular hiring, will force the former socialist president of El Tanque to be away from political activity for more than 26 years.
The court indicates that “if the defendant considered that the establishment of a center for the elderly was necessary for the community, the law established 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”.
The ruling states that “it was not a mere illegalitywhich may be the product of an erroneous, mistaken or debatable interpretation, as so often happens in law, but rather that the accused acted in fact to do his will, with an absolute lack of competence, and with disregard 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.
The Supreme rejects the thesis of the appellant who maintained that the only thing he was pursuing was the defense of the general interest, responding 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 “Martín Cánaves imposed his capricious or arbitrary will to the detriment of the public interest”.
The sentence says that Román Martín “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 Tenerifewhose sentence was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, imposed a sentence of special disqualification for employment or public office without specifying the jobs, positions and honors on which it fell. The courtroom declares in its sentence, presentation by the magistrate carmen lamelathat 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 the State Administration.
The penalty of disqualification refers to the position of mayor and “any other elective position of the Local Administration, the Administration of the Autonomous Communities and the State Administration”
Martín was disqualified for the second time in 2022, when he was sentenced to 14 years for various irregular hiring in the 2015-2019 term. The Prosecutor’s Office accused him in that second trial of “acting with a spirit of partiality and absolute contempt for the current legislation regarding the processes of selecting personnel for the performance of public functions, regardless of the principles of publicity, merit, equality and capacity, as well as the unfavorable reports of the Secretary-Intervention of the City Council”. He was accused of “proceeding repeatedly” arcarry out contracts that violate the Bases Law of the Local Regime, the Basic Statute of Public Employees, the General State Budget Law of 2015 and Royal Decree Law 20/2011 on urgent measures in budgetary, tax and financial matters to correct the public deficit. In October 2022, Román Martín accepted a third sentence of disqualification for another irregular contract.
From two absolute majorities to disqualification
Román Martín led the PSOE candidacy in 2011 and won 4 councillors, with 37.26% of the vote. He reached the Mayor’s Office for the first time agreeing with CC. After a very convulsive mandate due to the internal crisis of the PSOE, unleashed by the rupture of the pact with CC; he ended up ruling with the PP. After two years of authentic political war between Román Martín and his former party partner Pablo Estévez, with a threat of expulsion from the PSOE that was never carried out, the neighbors bet heavily on the young socialist in 2015 and punished those who were his government partners . CC lost three councilors and almost 500 votes, and the PP lost its two councilors and was left out of the corporation. Pablo Estévez, who left the PSOE after being the only one who respected the party’s guidelines in the break with CC in 2012, ran with NC and achieved two councilors and 15.69% of the votes. The absolute socialist majority of 2015, with 52.59% of the support, was an unexpected success that Román Martín knew how to consolidate in May 2019, when he obtained 60.17% of the electoral support, which gave him 7 of the 11 councilors of the tanker Corporation. However, the judicial processes opened after several complaints by Pablo Estévez and a municipal worker ended the political career of Román Martín in July 2021, when he submitted his resignation, almost 8 months after his first conviction.
