July 2023 date for Greenpeace activists’ El Algarrobico (Almeria) court case

TWENTY-EIGHT Greenpeace members will stand trial for daubing Carboneras’ doomed El Algarrobico hotel with paint in 2014.

The hearing is set for a year’s time in July 2023 and should they be found guilty, each faces a one-year prison term and a 24-month fine of €6 per day.

The case is the result of a private prosecution by the hotel’s owners, Azata del Sol. Meanwhile, Fiscalia (the Public Prosecution Department), maintained that following an extensive enquiry nothing links the 28 accused to any specific damage to the hotel. It also recommended shelving the case.

Nevertheless, the investigating judge recommended sending them to trial in February 2021 on charges of causing damage and disobedience.

The 28 Greenpeace activists supposedly painted “Hotel Ilegal” on the hotel’s seaward side, damaged doors and ignored Guardia Civil officers who ordered them to stop.

The almost-finished hotel, which has a demolition order hanging over it, was built just 14 metres from the shoreline and planning permission obtained in the 1980s was later declared invalid when construction began in 2003.

After a slew of court cases, appeals and counter-appeals, Spain’s Supreme Court confirmed that El Algarrobico  occupied non-building land, paving the way for its demolition.

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