Overview

• On June 5, the Barcelona Provincial Court acquitted Rubén Guijarro, ruling that prosecutors failed to show he acted willfully in withholding sanctions.
• Guijarro was accused of not initiating disciplinary proceedings against owners of illegal structures in La Conreria-Sant Mateu-Céllecs during his 2018–2019 tenure as urbanism councillor.
• The Fiscalía de Medio Ambiente de Cataluña had sought a four-year prison term, alleging a crime of territory planning and administrative prevarication.
• Former officials Ramón Díaz-Cano and Ricard Ruiz Portel were also exonerated, with the court accepting that sanctioning decisions were taken without guided intent to obscure infractions.
• The verdict underscores the court’s stance that breaches of urban planning regulations lacking conscious wrongdoing must be resolved through administrative, not criminal, channels.