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Eugenio Cabezas
Nerja
Monday, 7 October 2024, 13:12
Nerja town hall on the eastern Costa del Sol announced in a statement on Saturday 5 October that Malaga’s provincial court has rejected the environmental public prosecutor's request to sentence the mayor of Nerja, José Alberto Armijo, to two years in prison and an 18-month ban on holding public office for an alleged crime against the environment and natural resources.
Armijo, who was in office between 1995 and 2015, and has held the post again since 2019, said he was “pleased” at the decision. He went on to say, “I trust and hope that, following the evaluation of the evidence in its entirety carried out by the magistrate, a new acquittal will be handed down.”
For his part, Fernando Benítez, the environmental prosecutor for Malaga, told SUR that he had “no knowledge of this resolution” and that he had “not been notified of anything”. However, he added that he was “pleased” a new ruling has been issued. “It is what I was asking for, nullity and a new ruling,” said the Malaga prosecutor.
The appeal is connected to the Arroyo de la Miel illegal landfill site which operated for 18 years, between 1998 and 2016, in a former aggregate quarry located the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama natural park. During that time 802,000 cubic metres of construction waste and plant debris were dumped. The landfill was restored by the Junta de Andalucía, with European funds, with an investment of 1.6 million euros, which was completed in June 2022.
The ruling of the Malaga high court, to which SUR has had access, agrees to annul the ruling of the 15th criminal court “in its entirety and the return of the process to the criminal court that issued it, so that, in light of what is set out in the body of this resolution, and without the need to repeat the holding of the oral trial, a new sentence should be issued, with absolute freedom of criteria and decision of the judge, in which the totality of the evidence is assessed in a sufficient and reasoned manner”.
It goes on to say, “Likewise, the judgement will have to assess the scope of the expert evidence ratified by Antonio Miguel Fernández Bordes, determining whether the evidence constitutes an expert opinion and whether Mr Fernández Bordes should have the status of expert, witness or, where appropriate, expert witness.”
In its judgement, the provincial court understands that the appealed judgement “does not logically and rationally explain the reasons why it accepts the conclusions of the expert opinions provided by the defence and rejects the reports on which the public prosecutor's office bases its accusatory claims, as it omits any reference to the reports, opinions and documents cited”.
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