Alex Trelinski
A Villajoyosa judge has rejected an appeal from a Costa Blanca mayor that there’s not enough evidence for him to be prosecuted for illegally getting a COVID-19 vaccination.
La Nucia’s Bernabe Cano will be tried for bribery and administrative prevarication after receiving a first vaccine dose at a nursing home in January.
The ruling can still be appealed before the Alicante Provincial Court.
Cano’s lawyer argued in a preliminary hearing that his client only went to the home after being invited by family members of residents and had no intention of being vaccinated.
Throwing out an appeal to withdraw charges, the judge ruled that there was ‘sufficient evidence’ to prove that the Partido Popular’s Cano got a jab ‘due to the status of his position that he had at the time’.
She added that it is ‘undeniable’ that due to his public status, the mayor accessed the home when it was forbidden for other people.
The judge concluded that the vaccination was offered in ‘consideration of his public office and not of a doctor’.
One of Bernabe Cano’s defences for the early jab is that he’s a doctor for the La Nucia football club.
A Denia court took preliminary testimony last month from PSOE mayoral couple Carolina Vives and Ximo Colls, from Els Poblets and El Verger respectively, who also got early inoculations in January.
The judge still has to rule whether there is enough evidence to warrant full hearings.
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