The Provincial Court has acquitted to the defendants in the Castor case. According to the sentence, to which he has had access Mediterranean, a newspaper belonging to the same publishing group as this medium, the court does not appreciate a crime against the environment and natural resources and acquits Recaredo del Potro and José Luis Martínez Dalmau, former president and former CEO of Escal UGS, the company that promoted the Castor gas warehouse, off the coast of Vinaròs. The sentence also acquits the company.
The Castor case trial, which evaluated the earthquakes registered in the area around gas injections in the warehouse during the second half of 2013, took place during eleven sessions in the months of October and November, in the City of Justice Castellón, with the participation of numerous witnesses and experts. In the conclusions, the own Prosecutor’s office it withdrew the term “catastrophic risk” from the accusations, considering that it had not been proven.
However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office maintained the request for six years in prison for a crime “against the environment and natural resources, with risk to the life and physical integrity of people, with withholding of information from the administration and with a serious risk of irreversible or catastrophic deterioration “. The private prosecution, for its part, maintained its request for five years in prison for the directors of Escal, and compensation for the 128 affected by the association Plaque. Specifically, he claimed, in total, 1.8 million euros for the “moral damage” caused by the earthquakes registered in the north of Castellón and the south of Tarragona.
This view of the events was refuted in the final session of the trial by the three defense attorneys, who denied the crime against the environment. They pointed out that the prosecution’s accusation was constructed “based on a retrospective bias” and that “it lacks proof of the charge.” They defended that the company acted diligently and prudently. “Escal met the highest standards in the industry”, they assured. In addition, they remarked that “none of the defendants made operational decisions, but rather that they trusted the good performance of the experts”, after detailing the organization chart of the company. During the previous sessions, numerous experts had contested the reports on moral damage to citizens, and the Juanes report on the Amposta fault.
Free absolution
Weeks after the last session, the court has decided the free acquittal of all accused. The representative of the private prosecution, consulted by this newspaper, avoided assessing the sentence and sent an official statement that will be provided on Wednesday.
Sentence
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The sentence writing notes the absence of fraud, considering that “the conduct of the accused was intended to develop an industrial activity and not the pure intention of causing earthquakes capable of producing harmful or damaging effects.” The text adds that “it has been proven that the defendants did not remain impassive in the face of the increase in seismicity, but that on the contrary they were adopting corrective measures as they became aware of the increase in seismicity caused by their business activity “.
Therefore, the court considers that the accused “have observed the regulations in force at the time of the events, respecting the terms of the administrative authorizations and preset operating parameters“Thus, it concludes that” there was neither a serious danger nor was there a violation of environmental regulations. “
Reference-www.elperiodico.com