The Provincial Court of Seville has decided to postpone for another week the start of the trial for the listeriosis outbreak of 2019 linked to the contaminated meat from the company Magrudis, with the aim of facilitating a possible agreement between the parties, although the lawyers of some affected individuals have criticized the "silence" of the City Council of Seville during this negotiation process.
It is worth remembering that on October 16, a first postponement of ten days had already been agreed upon, so the hearing was supposed to start this Monday, October 26. After this new decision, the scheduled date is now set for November 3.
"With all sincerity, the postponement that has been allowed to assess the negotiations is to see if the City Council of Seville reacts, because everyone is doing their part, the injured, for example, are asking for basic compensations," expressed Manuel Parrilla, the lawyer for some of the affected, in statements to the media this Friday at the doors of the courts of Prado de San Sebastián.
Although the representatives of the affected parties are showing "optimistic" about the possibility of reaching an agreement that avoids the macro trial, designed with more than 40 sessions to clarify an episode that left over 200 people intoxicated and four deceased, they are demanding that the municipal government activate "the necessary mechanisms" of funding to cover the claimed compensations.
"It is not easy to reach an agreement, we would like to thank all parties except the City Council of Seville, which has sat as a listener in the negotiations, it seems that this matter does not concern them (...) We have not finished reaching an agreement due to the high amount of the compensations, but we continue negotiating," referred Germán Grima, also responsible for some of the affected.
In this line, he referred to the spokesperson of the local government, Juan Bueno, asking for a clear response on this matter. Bueno, a few days ago, emphasized that the local government "is always open to exploring any path and any possibility to resolve the matter in the best possible way," even stating that the City Council would have "no problem" if a possible agreement between the parties were to be proposed.
"There has been a social alarm since 2019, and since then we have not received a single call, nor a single informative concern about how those affected are doing. No movement on the part of the municipal corporation, which means that seven years later we are negotiating compensations with the insurance companies without having received even a call from the City Council," the lawyers lamented in reference to the attitude of the Consistory.
According to their details, the total amount of compensations for the group of victims would amount to 10 million euros. Of that sum, and according to what has been discussed so far, half would be assumed by the City Council. "They have extraordinary mechanisms to carry out this type of payments. If they want, they can, although we are open to any negotiation."
Regarding the criminal aspect, the representatives of the affected have indicated that they trust that the penalties will be "exemplary" and have specified that these sanctions are already contemplated in the drafts of the agreement.
In the indictment, the Prosecutor's Office appreciates an alleged continued crime against public health, in conjunction with four crimes of homicide due to gross negligence, seven crimes of injuries to the fetus due to gross negligence, 235 crimes of injuries due to gross negligence, one crime of defrauding electrical fluid and another of falsification of an official document.
For the first of the crimes, the Public Ministry requests four years of prison for each of the accused, José Antonio Marín Ponce, his son Sandro José Marín Rodríguez, his other son Mario Marín Rodríguez, and Encarnación Rodríguez Jiménez; it also claims for each of them another six years for the homicides due to gross negligence, fines for the crime of defrauding electrical fluid for all except for the architect, and an additional year and a half of prison for Antonio Marín Ponce, his son Sandro José Marín Rodríguez, and, in this case, for the architect Sergio L.G., for the crime of documentary falsification.