Mena is here to stay. Courts rule in favour of the Arona Mayor

The Investigating Court Number 4 of Arona, issued a final resolution yesterday dismissing the case against the mayor, José Julián Mena, presented by members of his party at the time, Dácil León, Juan Sebastián Roque and Luis García, who tried to oust him from the PSOE party claiming he and the municipal secretary had committed fraud.

The lawsuit began on 26^th November 2020, when the agenda of the plenary session included an item removing Mena from the Mayor's Office to the status of non-attached councillor, stating that the PSOE agreed to his expulsion from the party which would open the door to a motion of censure.

However, before this could happen, the mayor filed a judicial appeal against the PSOE resolution and, then, the municipal secretary argued, based on a complementary report, that his expulsion from the party could not be executed until said resolution was resolved. Finally, Mena won the appeal against his party and managed to have the file annulled by the courts.

Given Mena's refusal to join the Non-Appointed Group, the three councillors filed the complaint in January 2021 in which they accused both the mayor and the municipal secretary of prevaricating and committing fraud of law to maintain their status in the political party. They argued that the PSOE had expelled Mena, and had communicated their decision to the Arona City Council.

The ruling establishes, however, that the two reports prepared by the secretary “are fully consistent with each other. The first of them is based on the non-record of any resource. And the second, on the knowledge of its existence”.