In July 2023, the Greenpeace activists will face an oral hearing regarding alleged damage to the El Algarrobico hotel, Carboneras, as a result of a 2014 protest.
The Criminal Court 3 has scheduled for the 7th month, which is more than a decade away, the trial in the case in which the accused face sentences up to one year in prison as well as a fine of six euros per month.
After the private accusation by Azata Del Sol succeeded, the Prosecutor’s Office did not file a written complaint against the 28 activists.
He believes that there has been no evidence that “each of the identified persons” did anything, and that they were causing any damage.
The case’s investigating judge issued an order for an oral trial to be opened in February 2021. He also charged the defendants with damage crimes, and he would like to see fines of up to six euros per day.
He also attributes them to an alleged crime, which the hotel promoter asks for 12 months imprisonment. She also requests 186,000 euros in civil liability.
According to the order, the activists entered the hotel and painted the façade black with the legend “Illegal Hotel”, and then they “broke the doors”. Civil Guard agents asked them to stop and take down their actions.
Although the criminal case was originally filed by the investigating court and set for July 2023, the Provincial Court ordered its reopening after Azata del Sol challenged it in 2017.
The judge and prosecutor concluded that the people under investigation had not intended to damage property of others, but were protesting.
According to the Prosecutor’s office, which has requested dismissal in every instance, the “symbolic component prevails over material” and maintained that, due to the judicial pronouncements against the legality hotel, “the damage would significantly annul or diminish” if demolition was carried out.
The Provincial Court of Almeria reopened the investigation and found “duly justified” the commission of the alleged crime of harm in the course of what was then sixth action of conservation group in the establishment. This consisted of drawing a black line of 8,000m squares on the facade bearing the legend ‘Illegal Hotel’ in order to demand its immediate destruction.
In order to order the reopening, he remarked that “nothing justified their carrying out” and concluded that the existence of procedures in the contentious-administrative order regarding the legality of the hotel was “a fact disclosed by the media”, but that “neither does not reach the level of notorious fact, nor does it reflect in any way where it should be, that is, in the preliminary proceedings>>.
The report also identifies a significant number of people (between 30 and 40) who entered the area provided with painting material in a unitary manner. It also identifies some participants who, according to him, admitted his actions before the Civil Guard.
According to organizers, there were over 100 Greenpeace activists who attended the May 10th 2014 event. According to organizers, this action took place just a month and a quarter after the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia issued a second ruling. However, it contradicted the one that was made by the same body that declared Algarrobico land developable. This, according to Greenpeace, did little more than “entangle and give time for the administrations to not enforce the law.”
Four days later, 100 residents of Carboneras went back to the hotel to change the graffiti and cover it with black. This was to demand that the building be opened. According to one part of the population, this would be “beneficial” to the area in terms of creating jobs and wealth.