The law court handling the case of the illegal dump in Río de la Miel has again acquitted the Mayor of Nerja, José Alberto Armijo (PP).
It was last October when a provincial-level judge ordered the law court that had handled the original case to come up with a new verdict, stipulating that it should evaluate all of the evidence available “in a sufficient and motivated manner, with having to hold a retrial.” In the original verdict for the law case given in April 2023 it acquitted the Mayor.
Yet, here we are with a new acquittal despite seemingly unavoidable indications that could only lead to a condemnatory verdict, many would consider.
The judge who presided over the trial considered that there was no criminal act carried out against the environment, with the dumping of over 800,000 cubic metres of construction and other waste in an old quarry within the Parque Natural de las Sierras Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama.
Mayor Armijo says that he is “enormously satisfied” with this new judicial outcome from the Juzgado de lo Penal Nº15, which he expressed on social media.
“This new sentence confirms once again what I have been defending since 2017,” and, “Neither my political conduct nor the behaviour of the business owners involved deserved a criminal reproachment whatsoever.” She did say that the visual impact of there being a dump in this area was terrible but… no environmental harm was caused; i.e., contamination, fires provoked, etc.
The Judge said, “The presumption of innoncence of the accused has not been detracted from” and “The existence of the commision of environmental crimes, as posed by the prosecution, have not been demonstrated.”
The Public Prosecutor for environmental cases in Málaga also admitted that an acquittal had been issued and said that the trial had, this time, taken into account the Infoca report on the danger of a fire in the rubbish dump, the judge considered that during the time that the dump was in existence (1998-2016) there had been no fires.
The Public Prosecutor said that his department does not foresee taking further legal action, (once they have studied in a detailed manner the findings) although legally they do have that possibility.
The dump was used by local builders and (above all) the Town Hall itself during 18 long years. The Junta de Andalucia used 1.6-million euros obtained from the EU to clean the site up… because it’s a natural park, not a dumping ground for construction waste nor the Town Hall for its unwanted building material. It took until June, 2022, to restore the area.
Editorial comment: this verdict is absolute nonsense in the eyes of many and that the mere fact that the Mayor can get away with not only seemingly permitting an illegal dump in a natural park, but of evidently allowing the Town Hall to use it to dump its own rubbish, should entail a bare minimum, at least, of judicial retribution. And why should the EU pay for cleaning it up?
Every person who voted to have him re-elected as Mayor knew about this affair yet put him back in office regardlessly. Who knows, one day we might see a convicted fellon being elected to the office of PoTUS because those that cast their votes are quite happy to be complicit.
How can we condemn politicians’ questionable actions if we reward them with office?
(News: Nerja, Axarquia, Costa de Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)
Keywords: Illegal Dump, Abandoned Quarry, Rio de La Miel, Mayor Armijo, Acquitted
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