Almost 30 Greenpeace activists acquitted of painting 'illegal hotel' on construction site in Almeria

The protesters had been accused of daubing graffiti on the the façade of the building in El Algarrobico in May 2014 and the defendants were facing one year in prison plus a fine and 186,700 euros in damages

Europa Press

Almeria

Wednesday, 11 September 2024, 17:03

Almeria's criminal court has acquitted the 28 Greenpeace activists accused of entering a hotel under construction in the Algarrobico area in Carboneras in May 2014 to paint 'hotel ilegal' on the façade of the building.

Greenpeace has announced the court ruling on its social media and welcomed the decision. "Enough of persecuting activists and more persecuting those who destroy nature," the post published on its X account said.

The defendants, who during the trial denied their involvement, claimed they had only gone to the beach to protest against the construction. They faced one year in prison plus a fine and 186,700 euros in compensation on the basis of the case which was opened by the hotel's developer, Azata del Sol, while the prosecution saw no crime.

On the basis of the statements and evidence provided during the trial held on 17 May, Judge María del Mar Alejo Rico acquitted the defendants of crimes of disobedience and damage, considering that there was insufficient proof that the defendants gained access to the interior of the hotel, according to the sentence to which Europa Press has had access.

Furthermore, the judge did not see sufficient evidence to show that the officers who intervened during the protest addressed the defendants "urging them to leave the place, nor, therefore, that the defendants ignored this request and remained inside the hotel".

The judgement stated in its grounds for the decision that despite the fact that all of them are identified in a statement made by the Guardia Civil, there was not enough evidence that the defendants gained access to the hotel, given the "substantial discrepancies" that arose from the account of each of the officers who intervened, as "not even" the number of people found inside the building coincide.

"While one of them stated that there were about 150 people, another indicated that there were 50 and another stated that there were a total of around twenty or thirty activists", said the judge who added that the activists were not "identified in their entirety".

The judge also highlighted other differences in explaining how the activists were identified, since while some officers indicated that "they took the details inside the hotel from the people who were wandering around" suggesting that the defendants were not evicted from the premises. However, another officer claimed "they identified the activists as they left the hotel," indicating that they had to remove them by force.

The judge also took into account the version of the accused, who stated that they were "identified on the beach" in front of the hotel when they participated in the demonstration against the building, since some of them even claimed not to belong to Greenpeace or to be activists, "all of them deny accessing" the hotel.

Journalists' identification

Other doubts surrounding the numbers was the alleged presence of "not only activists but also journalists from various media outlets", with express mention of various channels, newspapers and news agencies, "who clearly had no involvement in the events".

"One of the accused stated that he is a journalist by profession and that on the day in question he had gone to the beach to cover the news, which was not disputed by any of the officers who insisted on the impossibility of individualising the specific participation of each of the accused, nor of specifying what each of them was doing when they were identified," the judge said.

As for the defendants who identified themselves as members of Greenpeace, their participation in the damage to the hotel cannot be proven either, as it has not been established that they were identified inside the building "and it is therefore plausible that they simply took part in the demonstration which, according to the unanimous version provided by the defendants".

As for the only Greenpeace member who carried a walkie-talkie and a map with a photograph of the hotel, he denied that he participated as a coordinator of the protest action, since his alleged participation, acknowledged on the beach, according to the statement, could not be corroborated by the officers who testified in court.

"They won't shut us up"

The director of Greenpeace Spain, Eva Saldaña, welcomed the acquittal of all the defendants. "Exercising our right to protest against attacks on the territory, the planet and people is an essential tool to bring about change and we will continue to do so. We will not be silenced," she said in a statement.

While waiting to see if the company that owns the hotel, Azata, appeals against the ruling, Greenpeace has closed "another chapter in the organisation's fight for the demolition of the illegal hotel at El Algarrobico".

The organisation has said that this "adds to the more than 40 rulings that have gone in favour of Greenpeace and that have declared that the construction of the hotel was illegal".

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