THE protesting owner of the crumbling Casa del Rey Moro in Ronda has branded police “barbarous” and the town hall “diabolical”.
Businessman Jochen Knie was jailed for three hours following an audacious rooftop demonstration at the Moorish king’s home.
He publicly campaigned against the 14-year delay in securing the town hall’s permission to convert the dilapidated building into a five-star hotel.
But police swooped on the angry Knie mid protest and he has now been accused of “resisting arrest with sticks and threats” by mayor Antonio Marin Lara.
“It’s simply barbarous. They entered without any warrant whatsoever. I am the owner of the place, it is insane.”
Knie, however, has refuted these claims and described his arrest as “illegal”.
“What was I doing wrong?” explained Knie. “It was a fair demonstration, you can’t just go inside somebody’s home and arrest them for voicing their opinion.
“It’s simply barbarous. They entered without any warrant whatsoever. I am the owner of the place, it is insane.”
Mayor Lara has now confirmed that the council may expropriate the building to prevent its eventual collapse.
But Knie has slammed these allegations, claiming that Lara would be acting beyond his rights.
“They can’t expropriate the home, they have no reason to,” the German continued.
“I signed a contract 14 years ago to transform this place and the town hall has prevented me from doing this.
“It is not even a question of whether they like the plans, they have not even let us put any proposals on the table.”
However, Lara insists that Knie is solely to blame for the saga and has likened his hotel plans to that of a UFO.
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Sums up the Spanish way of doing things in a nutshell.
I met the owner whenn he bought the casa del rey moro , somewhere on a party he was introduced. He had then big plans and 14 years ago it was then already neccesary that somebody did something with this very nice building. Knowing that Lara already does not care about allowing to destroy a natural habitat for golf he will eat this german for breakfast….. I would be surprised if the german ends up staying the owner , and whenn he will never ( sadly ) get a permission to build… and the palace will get the consequenses.
a pitty
How long is mayor Lana’s term?
As long as the incredibly gullible citizens of Ronda continue to elect him, RondaRookie!
How can a mayor who was elected as a Partido Andalucista (PA) councillor, abandoned that party, tried to get in bed with the Partido Popular (PP), and when they rejected him joined up with the Partido Socialista (PSOE) to continue in power. He is losing councillors by the bucket-load – another resigned last week – as his colleagues find his methods intolerable.
The man has no credibility left. He is so mired in controversy over a number of illegal projects that he has approved, including Los Merinos Golf Course, that it’s incredible he’s not behind bars! But then, he is a lawyer…! Enough said?
I don´t know Mr. Lara, but I know very well Mr. Knie. The former owner of the Hotel Casa Imperial in Seville, owns money to every single supplier and institution in Spain.
He has had more than one strike in his hotel and in Casa del Rey moro, for failling to pay his employees their salaries, while he enjoyed holidays here and there.
He recentlly lost the hotel and will soon loose Casa del Rey Moro.
Este Sr. debe dinero en toda Andalucía, a otros empresarios, a sus antiguos trabajadores y sus proveedores. Durante años falló en el pago a los mismos, adeudando grandes sumas a Hacienda y a la Seguridad Social.
Tiene numerosas causas abiertas en los juzgados de Sevilla y Málaga, y otras tantas perdidas y pendientes de embargos.
El Hotel Casa Imperial, que supuestamente gestionaba y donde habría obtenido su experiencia para esta nueva aventura, después de años abierto sin licencias y sin inscripción en los registros de Turismo de Andalucía (consultar en Turismo los expedientes abiertos en contra suya), ha tenido que cerrarlo porque no se lo ha pagado al banco y a puesto en la calle sin cobrar a la mayoría de sus trabajadores.
¿Cómo va a financiar este nuevo proyecto?
¿Ha pagado ya a la Sra. a la que compró las casas frente al hotel y a quien dejó en la calle, tras prometerle una vivienda? ¿Ha depositado en los juzgados los importes del juicio que perdió contra ella?
Good to hear both sides of the story, but relying on Lara for his views was always suspect. Now he’s pushed out, perhaps Ronda can move on from the rot and slush which surrounded him.
But both appear ‘tarred with the same brush’.