The mayor of Almonacid de Toledo, María Almudena González, must appear next Thursday, May 26, as investigated for an alleged crime of coercion. The appointment will be in the Court of Instruction number 1 of Orgaz, where three residents of this town of about 1,000 inhabitants must also appear. They are all summoned after the denunciation of the people who illegally occupied some houses, and who later left due to neighborhood pressure, between the end of August and the beginning of September last.
“Unfortunately, I’m under investigation for defending my people,” the municipal councilor told ‘ABC’, surprised by the court summons. “I am very outraged. We do not have weapons to prevent these crimes of occupation; the town demonstrates and the mayor goes out to be at the side of the State security forces and bodies, in this case the Civil Guard of Mora,” says the mayor of a town that does not have a local police and that previously had not had one similiar situation.
“From minute 1, I was calling the guards, which was the only thing I could do, and on the day of the demonstration the people did it freely and they called through WhatsApp,” the mayor continues. But they have turned the tables and they [the squatters] went to report two neighbors and me to the barracks for coercion.
The mayor already went to court this past Thursday to testify, but her appearance was suspended, since all the parties had been summoned to appear on the same day. “For that reason, they have summoned me again for the 26th,” she clarifies. “I hope that this does not have a long way to go-she wants her-and that there is no trial opening.” “In fact, I thought they had archived it,” admits the mayor, who is an interim official of the Administration of Justice.
«You see yourself subject to hands and feet, and if on top of that the mayors take us to court, imagine what they are going to do with the illegal occupation in a town: camp at will and intimidate the neighbors, as happened to us with these people”, recalls Almudena González. “They arrived in Almonacid marking their territory, but they lasted five days because there were 400 people in the street protesting,” she adds.
“This is the world upside down,” Javier Gallego y Sánchez-Rollón, the lawyer hired by the Almonacid City Council, tells ‘ABC’. “At no time has Mrs. Almudena committed any act of coercion, threat or any criminal act against the occupants of the homes or against any person,” says the lawyer. “The municipal councilor actively intervened in the search for a peaceful and legal solution to the very serious problem of security and coexistence (…), as happens in many towns in this country,” explains the lawyer, also surprised by the accusation of the mayor as investigated. “I’ve been stunned,” he stresses.
Gallego recalls that, on September 1, the mayor sent a letter to the Government delegate in Castilla-La Mancha, Francisco Tierraseca, to explain the situation. In the letter, the councilor stated that she felt “great impotence” at not being able to provide a solution. “But she did not pay any attention to him, despite doing it through the regulatory channel,” adds her lawyer. Almost nine months later, next Thursday, the mayor will have to appear in court investigated for an alleged crime of coercion.
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