The Court of Instruction Number 4 of Ibiza decreed the provisional dismissal of the president of the Consell de Ibiza, Vicent Marí, in the case“La Vida Islados“, considering that the emergency contracting of an advertising campaign in 2020 was legally justified due to the tourist crisis situation on the island.
In the court order, it is determined that Vicent Marí did not commit the crime of prevarication, influence peddling and coercion of the then deputy auditor María Ana Tur Díaz, as reported this morning by Periódico de Ibiza. For the judge, “the use of the figure of the emergency contract was a legally possible and defensible option” and explains that “the situation of tourist sinking of the island is a modality covered by the emergency”. In addition, none of the witnesses “with technical and legal capacity that have appeared in this case have questioned the emergency contracting”, as detailed by El Periódico de Ibiza from the order of the Court of Instruction. For its part, the PSOE did not make any presentation in the Contentious Administrative Court.
What the case was about
The “La Vida Islados” case was initiated as a result of an investigation into the contracting of an advertising campaign by the Consell de Ibiza.
In 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Consell awarded urgently and directly the production of a promotional video entitled “La Vida Islados” to the company Fuera de Escena Ibiza SL, with an approximate cost of 250,000 euros. This decision generated suspicions of irregularities and possible crimes of prevarication, influence peddling and coercion, which led to the intervention of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the opening of a judicial investigation. The legal process included statements from various parties, including the Consell’s comptroller, María Ana Tur Díaz, who claimed to have suffered situations of harassment and coercion related to the campaign. For his part, Vicent Marí denied any crime and described the process as a“PSOE set-up”.
