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The Spanish politician José Carlos Mauricio (former spokesperson for the Coalición Canaria party and former leader of the Communist Party) has been sentenced to one year and three months in prison for having pretended that a Cuban citizen was working for him, so that the woman could legalize her paperwork.
The sentence was issued after the other two defendants in the case, Juan Manuel Benítez (dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and his partner, the Cuban citizen M. D. D., admitted during the trial that they had submitted false documents with the help of their friend Mauricio.
The Criminal Court number 2 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has found it proven that the former nationalist deputy signed a fictitious contract in 2014 that stated M. D. D. was working for the Fundación Centro de Estudios Canarios, when such employment did not exist.
All of this occurred when the alleged employee was not actually working at that entity nor receiving any payment there, and it was her partner, Juan Manuel Domínguez, who was paying the Social Security contributions.
Although the judge has determined that the couple committed the same crime of forgery of an official document as Mauricio, she has imposed a lighter sentence of only six months in prison.
The ruling also reiterated that they falsified the documents that certified M. D. D. had been residing in Spain for over three years, when in reality the Cuban citizen was returning to the Island every three months, each time her exit visa expired because "that was required by the authorities of that country."
The former spokesperson for Coalición Canaria admitted in court that he hired M. D. D. for the Canary Islands Studies Center "for 'humanitarian' reasons, to prevent her from being 'dismissed' from the Canary Islands"; in other words, "to do a favor" for his friend.
The Cuban woman was placed under police surveillance due to suspicions raised by her regularization documents.
The judge has indicated that José Carlos Mauricio contradicted himself during the trial over simple details such as the location where his alleged employee worked or the salary he paid her. Additionally, he didn't even deny that it was his partner, M. D. D., who was paying the social security contributions.
The Efe agency highlights this Thursday that the Canary Studies Center had not had employees for years because it had dismissed its two previous workers due to a lack of funds to pay them.
In addition to prison sentences for the Spanish politician, fines of 1,800 euros have been imposed on Benítez and M. D. D., and 2,400 euros on Mauricio.
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