14 years after these proceedings began, all the defendants in the El Hacho strand, which formed part of the «Manilva Case«, have today been able to give evidence in courtroom number 2 of the Palacio de la Justicia in Málaga, seeking to establish their innocence by answering all the questions put by the prosecutor and by the defence lawyers of the other defendants.
DELAYED START DUE TO THE ABSENCE OF THE AUDITOR
The absence from the courtroom of the municipal auditor caused a delay to the start of the hearing, which even threatened a further suspension. After several minutes of uncertainty, it emerged that she had not been notified, despite being a witness of vital importance, since from the start of the proceedings she has maintained and reported the irregularities detected in the payments made to the EUC del Hacho and in the 16 decrees issued by the mayor’s office for these «loans».
REPORTS WERE SENT, 99% OF WHICH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT WAS REQUESTED
At around 10:35 the court entered courtroom number 2 and a series of submissions and preliminary issues were raised by the defence lawyers of each defendant, prompted by changes and amendments to the law that could reduce the possible sentences, as the alleged offence of misappropriation would become one of diversion of funds.
The judge in the case set out before those present the complexity of the whole procedure and the scant or non-existent cooperation obtained from Manilva Town Hall, since each time information was requested on specific aspects of the case, an enormous quantity of documentation was sent, with reports of which 99% had nothing to do with what had been requested, supposedly in order to complicate the proceedings.
MUÑOZ GIVES EVIDENCE FOR 46 MINUTES
At 12:00 Antonia Muñoz began the round of statements, answering the prosecutor’s questions. She maintained her innocence, saying she had acted decisively in a difficult situation for residents of the EUC del Hacho that affected the health and appearance of the area, and she maintained throughout that the payments made by the Town Hall were recoverable through payments from the collection board (Patronato de recaudación) and that by the time she left the council that debt had been more than settled.
Muñoz finished after 46 minutes, making way for Aitor Menoyo, the former secretary of the EUC del Hacho, who was also legal adviser to the Town Hall and who, over the 40 minutes of his testimony, had to defend to the prosecutor his various actions in each of his roles.
Diego Díaz, the councillor for finance at the time, also defended his innocence in response to questions from the prosecutor and the defence lawyers of the other defendants, in a somewhat shorter statement lasting 20 minutes.
At 13:51 the current mayor of Manilva, Mario Jiménez, stepped forward. Answering the prosecutor’s questions, Jiménez defended himself by arguing that «when you hold public office, sometimes decisions have to be made and he has always made them with the general interest in mind», in a statement lasting 15 minutes.
At 14:06 it was the turn of Emilio López, who was deputy mayor at the time. To the prosecutor’s surprise, and contrary to the minutes of the Local Government Board (Junta de Gobierno) of 10 March 2009, he argued that he did not arrive in time to vote on those payments and that he does not understand why this was not recorded in the minutes. López stated that on that day he was at his job as a doctor. His statement lasted 16 minutes.
Antonio de Haro, then a councillor for the ASM, also surprised the prosecutor by replying that his vote at that Junta de Gobierno, where the payments to the entity were approved, was against, but that apparently the secretary had not recorded this in the minutes either. Antonio de Haro was the only one who exercised his right not to answer the defence lawyers of the other defendants, so his statement ended after 9 minutes.
Paqui López, a councillor at Manilva Town Hall since 1999, was the last to answer the prosecutor’s questions, with a statement of just 5 minutes, saying she did not have a good enough memory to recall some of the details put to her about that Junta de Gobierno in 2009 and referring to what appeared in its minutes.
At 14:47 the session was brought to a close, with all the defendants summoned to continue initially on 22 June, subject to coordinating the diaries of everyone involved so as to bring an end to these proceedings, which have dragged on for so long.
JIMÉNEZ ANNOUNCES HIS STATEMENT
The current mayor, Mario Jiménez, surprised people on his Facebook page with a video recorded in Manilva at the same time as he was leaving the courts in Málaga, announcing his appearance, although, judging by the clothing and the excellent weather visible in it, the video was presumably recorded some days earlier.
