SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 10 December (EUROPA PRESS) –
The judge of the Criminal Chamber, Pablo Llarena, who is overseeing the case against the senator for El Hierro, Javier Armas, of the Herreña Independiente Group (AHI), has issued an order approving the provisional and partial dismissal as he discovered no evidence implicating him in environmental crimes.
The judge has also consented to forward the proceedings to the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the appropriate procedural considerations concerning the other individuals being investigated in the matter.
In his ruling, he elaborates that the allegations against the defendant pertain to the period when he served as the director of the Environment, Security, and Emergency Area of the Cabildo – from 2003 to June 2007 – during which time he allegedly failed to prevent operations at three uncontrolled landfills, as noted by the Supreme Court in a statement.
One is located in the ‘El Majano’ region, where the stacking and dismantling of vehicles was conducted; another for urban solid waste situated in the Dehesa area, within the protected natural space of Frontera Rural Park; and a final landfill in the mountain known as ‘La Cumbrecita’.
The judge asserts that throughout his tenure with the El Hierro Council from 2003 to 2007, Armas did not hold the position of councillor to whom delegated powers could be assigned, serving merely as director of the Environment, Security, and Emergency Area of the Cabildo of El Hierro.
This role with auxiliary functions, he notes, “did not confer inspection, decision-making, or sanctioning authority over urban, industrial, or environmental matters, thereby excluding the legal status of guarantor that could potentially justify the omissive liability under review, in addition to any accountability related to the crime of administrative prevarication as outlined in article 404 of the Penal Code”.
According to Llarena, “not even in this case was any sort of report favourable to an activity licence issued by the investigated party, nor is there evidence that he neglected his official duties regarding the investigative actions that should have been undertaken by the competent environmental authorities”.
In this vein, he highlights that the first two instances of improper dumping occurred before the individual under investigation took on the environmental coordination role assigned to him and asserts that there is no indication that the Corps of Environmental Agents of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands carried out any inspection regarding potential administrative breaches in the analysed activity (Law 8/1989, dated 13 July, establishing the Environmental Agents Corps of the Community), nor that the Nature Protection Service (Seprona), the Canary Islands Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment (APMUN), or any individual lodged complaints concerning the inadequate operation of the landfills.
NO RULES WERE VIOLATED
The judge highlights that, in this context, “there is no obligation on the part of the individual under investigation – ex officio and without a prior complaint – to establish a surveillance framework that would support the environmental sanctioning authority attributed to the Cabildo of El Hierro, nor does it appear that the investigated party managed to conduct supervisions in which he concealed the breach of the regulations governing discharges and thereby fulfilled the requirements outlined in article 329 of the Penal Code.”
He recalls that, although the Penal Code also classifies as criminal the failure to conduct obligatory inspections of certain administrative activities subject to oversight, “even this conduct was not categorised within the criminal offence prior to the enactment of LO 5/2010 — the period during which the investigated individual performed his function–, there was not even a legislative requirement that imposed such an obligation on the head of the Environment Area of the Cabildo.”
The judge concludes that, “following the aforementioned considerations, coupled with the absence of evidence suggesting that the discharges in La Cumbrecita began while the accused was performing his environmental duties, dictates the provisional dismissal of the case, in accordance with the provisions of article 641 of the LECRIM”.
