The family Campos Penacondemned for the plundering of water in Doñanawill be able to avoid jail after the sentence of the Seville Courtwho has reduced his sentence from three and a half years in prison to one and a half years, reports The Country.
The five brothers, owners of the farm Hato Blanco Viejo in Aznalcázar (Seville), were the first landowners to be sentenced to more than two years in prison in September 2023 for the plundering of water in the aquifer of the National Park. In total, they stole 19.4 million cubic meters of water between 2008 and 2013.
However, the Seville Court has reduced his sentence by half considering that there is a very qualified mitigating circumstance. That is to say, although they are guilty of a crime against the environment and another of damages, as Justice took a decade to convict them, they will be able to avoid prison.
The conviction of the 14th Criminal Court in Seville marked a milestone due to the forceful initial sentence, since until that moment, the offending farmers of Huelva and Seville had never received more than two years in prison. due to the consumption of the already overexploited Doñana aquifer.
The magistrates Mercedes Fernandez, Elvira Alberola and Joaquin Yust They overturned the initial ruling and partially upheld the appeal of the landowners, who thus avoided going to prison.
Finally, they have been sentenced to one year in prison for the crime against the environment and six months for the crime of damage, in addition to a fine of 4,200 euros and 1.9 million in compensation for the massive theft of water.
The events date back to 2008
The court has recalled that the events date back to 200816 years before this ruling, and has pointed out the “absolute paralysis” of the offenders for more than three years, as well as the four years it took the Justice Department to hold the trial in the first instance.
Although the ruling has recognized the complexity of the case, the number of defendants, witnesses and expert reports involved in the process does not justify the delay of more than a decade in the prosecution of the landowners. The judges highlight that “the delay has been extremely extraordinary.”
The Court recognizes that “the temporal extension – of six years – and the seriousness of the event” reinforce the serious crime against the environment committed.
He also criticizes the judge of first instance, Isabel de Luque, by pointing out that her assessment to increase the sentence above the legal minimum required “more profound reasoning”, given that crime against the environment has a maximum penalty of five years in prison, while the brothers have received only one year.
The ruling recalls that Landowners could have avoided environmental damage by using control mechanisms for the extraction of water from wells.both authorized and illegal, but they chose not to do so. “Consciously and voluntarily, the accountants did not exist,” the magistrates reproach.
Some family members were not involved in the management
Amanda, Jose Maria and Antonio Campos Peñathree of the brothers, tried to avoid the sentence by claiming that they were not involved in the administration of the farm. However, the judges reminded them that it was “untenable” to argue that they and their partners were unaware of the “years of sanctions” imposed by the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederationthree of which were ratified by the Supreme Court.
Among the convicted brothers, one is a priest and another resides in the United Kingdom, and both had “sufficient intellectual level” to notice the “constant illegal extraction of water.” “Ignoring, ignoring or looking the other way is not sustainable when the warnings were multiple and prolonged over time,” the Court concludes.
Since 2005, The Campos Peña decided to prevent the police from accessing their farmuntil the Confederation, dependent on the Ministry of Ecological Transitionregularized crops six years ago, in 2018.
“The constant obstruction to the water police when they tried to access the property, once they noticed unauthorized areas where watering was taking place, and above all, the absolute absence of control regarding the water to be extracted” are some of the highlighted problems. The offending owners accumulated more than five million in fines.
The family also appealed the amount of the fine of 4,200 euros, but the Seville Court did not reject it when remembering their patrimonial capacity, given that the family’s properties are valued at 3.3 million euros.
The level of the aquifer dropped 15 meters due to the magnitude of the theft
The theft was of such magnitude that the water table of the aquifer dropped to 15 metershighlighted the expert assigned to the Technical Unit of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office. They had permission to water 456 hectares of a total of 1,044 cultivated with rice, cotton and beets.
The ruling of the Court of Seville only allows resorting to the appraisal before the Supreme Court for violation of the law. Juan Luis Pérez Marínthe family’s lawyer, has refused to confirm the conviction before the court.
The condemnation of the Court of Seville confirms that Campos Peña must pay 1.9 million euros as compensation. However, their continuous litigation has allowed them to save a lot of money in the last decade: of the 5.7 million they had to pay in fines, they only paid 770,072 euros, that is, 13% of the total, according to the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation.
Between 1997 and 2013, they accumulated 14 million-dollar finesthree of which were ratified by the Supreme Court. Of the latter, the Confederation did not collect a single cent of the 2.1 million in penalties.
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