The College of Science supports Omar Defeo and Daniel Banario before IDM criminal complaint

On the 14th of this month, the municipality of Maldonado appealed Judge Alejandro Ricari’s ruling to suspend works on Punta Chlorada Street, but it also filed a criminal complaint against the two environmental experts, whom he accused of perjury.

In the session Monday, July 25, the Council of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of the Republic (UdelaR) decided to support Professors Omar Devio and Daniel Panario by the municipality of Maldonado, while the status of the Board of Directors lifted a permit.

“The Board of the Faculty of Science expresses its unequivocal support to Professors Omar Defeo and Daniel Panario and its grave concern about the criminal complaints of perjury filed by the municipality of Maldonado against them, after the judiciary ordered a precautionary measure not to innovate on the coast of Punta Colorada,” the statement read.

“Both teachers gave their expert testimony in the framework of the application submitted to the judiciary, by social organizations, the Punta Colorada Development Commission and the Association of the Residents of Ponta Colorada, to request that preventive measures be taken on the coast of Punta Colorada until the time of the study and discusses the project for the construction of an avenue on the coast of the said area” Add.

The Council of the Faculty of Sciences recognizes that the scientific opinion, generously and responsibly presented by Professors Defeo and Banario, two renowned Audelar researchers, experts on the subject of coastal dynamics, is an important contribution that enriches the citizens’ debate, therefore, the measure aimed at silencing them is unacceptable and must be rejected.”

Attorney Hugo Alvez, representing the municipality of Maldonado, on Thursday, 14 July, in the Palacio de los Tribunales, before the Supreme Court of Justice of Montevideo, submitted requests for reconsideration and appeal against the ruling of Judge Alejandro Ricari. On Friday the eighth of the same month.

Alfez emphasized that the judge relied on the testimonies of witnesses who failed to tell the truth, and that is why the Antalya administration decided to denounce their false testimony, which was also confirmed on the same day. “The administration was accused unfoundedly of illegal acts that it did not commit,” the lawyer said.

Confronting the argument that the street between San Francisco and Punta Colorada was built without environmental permits, Alves stated that “Avenues, under Section 153 of the Water Code, are outside the coastal defense sector and no permit is required. An environment to work outside of it as is” .

He concluded by saying: “It is another fallacy approved by the witnesses, and another one of the reasons for filing a criminal complaint.” And it was not reported whether the criminal case against Omar Defeo and Daniel Panario in this case was filed in a court in Maldonado, or, on the contrary, was filed in a place in the country’s capital.