They ask for 12 years of disqualification for the former mayor of Usagre and a mayor for the concession of a photovoltaic

MÉRIDA, Jan. 4 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Prosecutor's Office has requested a sentence of 12 years of special disqualification for employment or public office for the former mayor of Usagre Antonio Luna and the former mayor María Dolores Esteban for two crimes of administrative prevarication in the granting of the urban planning license to the installed photovoltaic plant in the municipal term.

In addition, in her indictment, the prosecutor requests 21 months in prison and a fine of 2,700 euros for the administrator of the responsible company, Proyecto Núñez de Balboa, for a crime of falsifying an official document committed by an individual.

This administrator, as stated in the tax classification, requested the city council to grant the urban planning license through the appropriate responsible declaration, being "fully aware that what was stated did not conform to reality, because at that time he lacked all the authorizations and respective concessions", indicates the Prosecutor's Office in a press release.

The secretary-controller of the town hall realized that all the necessary authorizations and permits had not been presented, and required the company to provide them. By not complying with the requirement, the secretary issued a report in which she urged the ex officio review of the file, according to the prosecutor in her letter.

However, despite what was recommended by the secretary-controller, Luna, who continues as an opposition councilor, like Esteban, decided to grant the license in June 2018, "being fully aware that his actions undermined the correct exercise of the public function and motivated by the objective of preventing the photovoltaic plant from carrying out its activity in another municipality".

All this despite the fact that the then mayor was "absolutely aware that the respective authorizations and concessions had not been obtained," according to the Prosecutor's Office.

After another unfavorable report from the Secretariat, the former mayor decided to suspend the granting of the permit, a suspension of the effects of the license that, according to the indictment, "is a legal fiction, absolutely non-existent in the legal system, which only responded to the deliberate and unfair intention of Antonio Luna to avoid, by all means, the ex officio review of the file".

In another opinion of October 4, 2018, the secretary-auditor again reported unfavorably the granting of planning permission.

"Once said legal advice was obtained, Antonio Luna stated, for the first time during the processing of the file, that he himself could have a particular interest in lifting the suspension of the license for running the photovoltaic evacuation lines through its land", determines the Prosecutor's Office in its accusation.

It was then that the defendant delegated to the first deputy mayor of the Usagre City Council, the defendant María Dolores Esteban, the adoption of the agreement to maintain or suspend the effects of the planning license.

María Dolores Esteban resolved "with the same spirit of disturbing the proper functioning of the public function" and "in her capacity as Mayor-Delegate", to lift the suspension of the effects of the planning license" for the construction of the photovoltaic installation.

The Public Prosecutor insists that "this decision of the defendant was especially serious when it was stated, in his signed decree, that the permits and authorizations are still missing."

This procedure, instructed in court number 1 of Llerena, was initiated by the Public Prosecutor's Office following a complaint communicated by the company Natura Manager S.L., owner of most of the land affected by the photovoltaic plant.