The Supreme Court has confirmed the sentence of four years in prison for Victorino Alonso, known as the king of coal, for the environmental damage caused in the exploitation of one of his mines. In addition, this businessman must pay a fine of more than 24.3 million euros for a crime against natural resources and the environment. Alonso, with a good number of open cases and some convictions, has managed to avoid jail so far. He even declared himself insolvent in 2018 and did not face another fine of 25.5 million euros to which he was sentenced for destroying a prehistoric site, the Cueva de Chaves (Huesca), to build some goat troughs on his hunting estate. The Supreme Court has now declared the company Minero Siderúrgica de Ponferrada SA and its successor Coto Minero del Cantábrico as subsidiary civil liability for this new fine of 24.3 million.
The sentence now confirmed by the Supreme Court was issued in May 2021 by the Provincial Court of León and refers to the damages caused by the opening of an open-pit coal mine, known as Nueva Julia, in the town of Cabrillanes (León), between 2007 and 2010. The magistrates of the Criminal Chamber understand that Alonso's company executed that mine occupying plots and without licenses "knowing its illegality."
The magistrate of the Supreme Angel Luis Hurtado, who has been the rapporteur, considers that in this case there is evidence that evidences "the exaggerated environmental excesses that are declared proven" and adds that the impact "is of such magnitude, that it offers samples that, to the naked eye, are detectable, such as topographic modifications, or the destruction of both the soil and the entire vegetation, or the existence of waste heaps, or the plugging of streams by debris."
In addition, the invasion of plots of land in the neighboring municipality of Villablino represent "one more excess of all those incurred by the developer, some qualitative, through the aggression to natural resources, and others quantitative, in that it expanded through land for which it did not have authorization, just as it did not have it for the aggression to the environment, and all this from authorizations that he did obtain, but that, in its development, exceeded its limits in all its aspects, always with the same lucrative purpose that guided all the behavior of the condemned ".
Alonso's defense had appealed the conviction of the Leonese Court of 2021. But the magistrates of the Supreme Court have rejected all the arguments and have confirmed the sentence, thus maintaining the sentence of four years in prison and 24.3 million euros. The Supreme Court considers that the penalty imposed is reasonable due to the enormous extension of the affected area, which exceeds 400 hectares, the more than four years that the exploitation lasted, the enormous seriousness of the damages and risks caused, and the more than 25 million in which the repair of those impacts was calculated. In addition, the court rules out deriving responsibility to other directors or staff of the company, since Alonso was "owner, manager, director, supervisor and administrator" of the company, with which "the control of all its activity passed through his hands".
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