The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has resolved the appeals made by the Prosecutor’s Office, the former mayor of Alicante Luis Díaz Alperi and the businessman Enrique Ortiz against the ruling of the Alicante Provincial Court, of July 7, 2021, in the case related to a review of the city’s PGOU that culminated in 2010.
The Court sentenced Díaz Alperi to a fine of 6,000 euros for the crime of improper bribery, and Ortiz to a fine of 18,000 euros for the crime of bribery, and acquitted the other seven defendants, including the former mayor of the city Sonia Castedo, due to lack of evidence or prescription of criminal infractions.
The Supreme Court now ratifies the conviction of Enrique Ortiz, by rejecting his appeal, and acquits Díaz Alperi, by partially upholding his appeal and considering it time-barred, since the act for which he had been convicted occurred in August 2008 (gift of a trip to Crete) and the procedure was directed against him on October 1, 2012, that is, after the legal statute of limitations of three years provided for the crime of improper bribery in the wording of the Penal Code in force at that time had elapsed.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court rejects the appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office against acquittal pronouncements made by the Provincial Court, and recalls that no alteration of the factual account contained in the lower court ruling is viable.
He adds that “whether the accusations regarding the specificity and precision of the indictment are right or wrong, especially with respect to the correlation of each type of crime charged to each accused with a specific section thereof, the ruling has assessed all the claims made by the accusations, as well as the factual support thereof; and has done so in a motivated manner, with a reasoned explanation of its conclusions”.
The Supreme Court also rejects the appeal of businessman Enrique Ortiz and confirms his conviction for the crime of bribery. The high court explains in this regard that the proven facts show that at Christmas 2008, the accused gave a “Carolina Herrera” brand jacket to Sonia Castedo Ramos, then mayor of Alicante, due to the relationships established between him, in his capacity as an urban entrepreneur and a part of the local authorities.
The court considers that “there is direct and undisputed proof of the gift, its authorship and the authority of the recipient; and the inferences of obeying the same to the condition of Mayor and not to the relations of friendship, as well as its excessive nature, due to its value (which determines, together with the consideration of authority of the recipient, the finalistic element of the type) , respond to convincing logical criteria and adequate maxims of experience; As a result, the diverse evidentiary assessment presented by the appellant is ineffective in this venue.”
