You don't turn up for a court case against you, neither does your lawyer, yet, you're acquitted. Foolproof defense it seems, but unfortunately for the accused, it is not.

The higher court examined the sentence and decided that the accused, even though they were acquitted, had not been present, therefore their rights had been infringed and so a retrial has been ordered!

It all goes back to a couple who had access to mains water without a valid contract with the waterboard. This would incur merely an administrative fine. The waterboard sued them in October 2021 and when the hearing came up, the couple were acquitted because, quite frankly, it was not a lot of water obtained in this fashion.

The waterboard was not happy, so they appealed against the sentence before the Granada provincial law courts. The Public Prosecutor also now got involved because of the irregularities in the judicial process. The result is a retrial. We wonder if anybody will turn up…

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)