Overview
- The hearing scheduled in Cartagena was suspended on Wednesday, May 20, after a judicial ecotoxicology expert did not appear and prosecutors and private accusers asked the court to delay the trial so his testimony can be heard in a single session.
- Prosecutors say the expert's report is essential because it ties alleged salinized, nitrate-laden discharges and illegal well extraction from roughly 2015–2017 to ecological damage in the lagoon, and the court accepted the request to adjourn the session.
- The piece of the 'Topillo' macrocausa on trial names Ecosarete S.L., Datelio S.L. and an administrator as accused, with the Public Prosecutor seeking seven years' prison, fines and quantified public‑domain damages of €506,137.44.
- Defenses challenge the evidence and the expert's findings, arguing the desalination units named were not operating during the period and saying there is no direct proof their clients dumped salinized water into the Mar Menor.
- Beyond the immediate case, the delay stalls the first real-world test of Law 19/2022 that grants legal personality to the Mar Menor and its basin, a development whose legal limits and reparations rules will now be shaped later by the court's handling of expert evidence and subsequent rulings.