Twenty Years of Investigation and the Trial is Suspended on the Same Day Due to Lost Documentation

The trial for the alleged oldest corruption case in the province of Alicante, which began investigation in 2003, had to be suspended on the first day due to missing documentation in the case, as pointed out by the defenses. The Provincial Court of Alicante had to postpone the oral hearing indefinitely until the documentation arrives from the Dénia court... if it arrives at all, as one of the judges asked a defense lawyer to keep his copy safe to include it in the case if necessary.

The case involves an alleged rigging in the contract for the construction of the town's cross-sewer network by the former Water Councillor of Calpe Town Hall and former advisor of the mixed company Aguas de Calpe, Juan Roselló, in favor of his brother-in-law Francisco Artacha 21 years ago. Additionally, there are six accused individuals of administrative malfeasance and fraud and three counts of fraud, two of them continuous, who will stand trial.

All of them are charged with irregularities detected in 2004 in the awarding of the management of the public water supply service to the entity and in the subcontracting of the service and works.

They had all been summoned for this Monday in the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Alicante to begin the oral hearing of one of the oldest processes currently handled by the province's courts. Four sessions were scheduled until the next 31st of March.

However, the court decided to suspend the hearing until the complete file of the case is completed, which supposedly remained in the Dénia first instance court that saw the case. All this as a result of the preliminary issues raised just as the trial began by the defense of former councillor Juan Roselló.

His lawyer filed a motion to nullify the case due to the absence of the original complaint and the documents that initiated the investigations by the Prosecutor's Office in 2004. "The documents that exist are the ones that exist," the president of the court told him during his first intervention.

The councillor's defense argued that there had been a violation of rights and, therefore, the entire instruction could be nullified.

Another lawyer, representing the councillor's brother-in-law, later pointed out that not only were those original documents missing. The file of the Court also lacked more documentation such as the original project of the cross-sewer network and other papers on which he was going to base his client's interrogation. And that he did have, as he has handled the trial from the beginning: "There are six boxes, Your Honour," he repeated to the president of the court. "They are indeed in the case, but perhaps the Dénia court did not send them," he explained.

Faced with this unprecedented situation, which could lead to the defendants' defense in a subsequent appeal and cause the case to be filed, the court opted to suspend the trial until the documentation is found. A decision that was supported by the Public Prosecutor's Office and the private accusations, including subcontracted companies that claim they have not yet been paid for the work done.

Now, twenty years later, they will have to continue waiting for a definitive decision from the Justice.