The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Ciudad Real is interested in opening an oral trial before the criminal court against the former mayor of Puertollano, Joaquín Carlos Hermoso Murillo, and the former casual secretary of the mayor’s office, Juan Luis Vasquez Calvo, for whom this happened. Requests a special disqualification sentence of nine years for the alleged crime of prevarication in the framework of the investigation of the famous “Ceru case” related to the administrative cases and contracts related to the construction of the football stadium in Ceru, and the operation related to this project: the exchange of land in the Abulgar district was planned between the council and the company that originally He was going to build a mine, which was opened in 2010.
At the same time, the prosecutor’s office destroys the criminal approach of “criminal conspiracy” within the Consistory, raised by the 3rd Judge of the Court of Puertollano in the order of justification of the case of March 21, 2023, since the Public Ministry called. The rest of the 15 investigated cases are temporarily closed, given that there is insufficient evidence to support the charges.
Accordingly, the Prosecutor’s Office’s letter dated June 13, 2023, signed by the Chief Prosecutor of the Province, Luis Huete Pérez, only thanks to the detailed report, places the procedural burden on those who were mayors and municipal secretaries and reduces the charge to a mere criminal offense. Presumption of prevarication.
Thus, the prosecutor points out that in 2007 the defendant Joaquin Bello Murillo, in his capacity as mayor, and the municipal secretary, Juan Luis Vazquez Calvo, “who abstained from an operation clearly contrary to the regulations on administrative contracts” decided to sign an exchange contract with the company Promociones Inmobiliarias del Pisuerga (PROINSA), “which violated the principles of public administration and basic competition in the law of public administration contracts in effect at the time.”
Always according to the indictment document consulted by Europa Press, on October 16, 2007, Hermoso Murillo knowingly and voluntarily signed the exchange contract, “having not previously complied with any of the requirements imposed by the aforementioned regulations regarding the preparation and assignment.” Contracts by public administrations, which the accused himself knew because of his long career as the mayor of Puertollano and his status as a lawyer.” This contract stated that PROINSA was obliged to build the football field within 14 months after the construction license was granted.
The Public Ministry states that under this agreement, in exchange for the construction of the soccer field, the respondent City Council committed to transfer to Proinsa the municipally owned plots known as “Abulagari” in Sector IV Urban Action Plan, with an area of 34,846 square meters.
In order to quantify the benefits of the contracting parties, continues the prosecutor, it was determined in the contract that, since the plots could not be delivered before the urbanization, the interest that must be paid by the city council was estimated in the amount of 376,406. euro. The value of the land that the council agreed to supply was set at €11,234,980 and the cost of the construction to be carried out by PROINSA was quantified at €6,999,853. Given that the urbanization costs amounted to €2,195,337 and the council’s interest of €376,406, it was agreed that at the time the plots were registered in favor of PROINSA, it should pay the council €1,663,236.
According to the prosecutor’s office, in addition to the signature of the mayor and the representative of PROINSA, the contract was signed by the municipal secretary “on its obvious illegality” through the “reverse” process defined by the law, since. First, the contract was signed, and then it was put to the vote of the municipal representative bodies.
Role of Provincial Urban Planning Commission
Thus, on October 25, 2007, the contract was put to a vote before the Urban Planning tion Commission of the City Council and approved by the votes of PSOE councilors, with PP and IU councilors abstaining. On the same day, the 25th, it was put to a plenary vote, approved by 15 PSOE councilors and 10 PP and IU councilors abstained.
The prosecution’s history goes on to highlight that the process of granting construction licenses to the company TECONSA – corporately linked to the Castilian-Leone group Martínez Núñez and PROINSA – “was carried out in a context of arbitrariness that vitiated the exchange agreement.” “It is a clear fact that the exchange agreement was entered into in order to avoid the conclusion of an employment contract and thereby eliminate the principles of advertising and competition, which were evident in the actions taken later,” the provincial prosecutor’s office argued.
A work stoppage by TECONSA led to contract termination on October 16, 2007. After the contract was settled and considering that the work on the football field was incomplete, the city council this time changed the contract law, declared in the competition.
Of the remaining 15 investigated, Luis Huete is requesting a temporary suspension of their cases, given that there is insufficient evidence to support the charges.
In a thorough reflection on the procedural path of the case since May 5, 2017, the prosecutor asserts the request for release according to all cases, emphasizing the non-interference in the investigated administrative procedures, the accusations based on mere suspicions. The complex structure of the administration, which does not allow file reports to be focused on one person, the criminal inconsistency of the action, the participation of the participants in the investigation at a time when the events were already completed, violations that do not reach the category of criminal offense, the designation of the alleged offense, the discrepancy of the signatures reflected in the documents or simple participation of technical members, among other legal aspects.
Source: El Diario
