A Motril law court has acquitted Juan Carlos Benavides of perverting the course of justice and abuse of land-use planning. Also acquitted were municipal officials José Luis Rodríguez Passolas Sánchez, Gerardo García Villén and Luis Oliveros Rodríguez Varo

The charges were levied against the now ex-Mayor of Almuñécar by the Provincial Public Prosecutor over the issuing of a building licence for Hotel Bahia on Avenida Don Juan Carlos I.

The Public Prosecutor accused the Mayor of trying to sidestep legal limitations over altering an establish PGOU (General Urban Development Plan) in order to allow the building of  several hotels in the municipality, amongst them the said hotel.

The judge considered that it could not be proved that any “confabulation, connivance or common accord” existed amongst the accused to build hotels, even knowing that it was not legal, for “their own benefit or to the benefit other than that of the town in general.”

The accused had claimed that they acted in accordance with the law once favourable technical and legal reports were received. They pointed out that the modifications to the PGOU were sent to the Junta and that no objections were received, only requests for small adjustments to the projects, which were immediately incorporated.

The judge also had some not very complimentary observations concerning the witnesses, Pedro Lara Escribano, the Provincial Delegate for the Board of Public Works, José Ortíz Mallol, the Director General for Territorial Inspections and Ana Isabel Hernandez Leyva, an expert belonging to the Junta de Andalucía, whose testimony he considered to be “scanty and ambiguous” considering the positions of responsibility that they all hold.

Finally, the judge observed that not once in eight years from receiving notification that the hotel had received its first-occupation certificate did the Junta lodge one appeal against the building.

The sentence is not final as an appeal can be made before a higher court.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)