The current mayor of Manilva, Mario Jiménez, former mayor Antonia Muñoz and several Town Hall officials take their seats in the dock this week, facing requests for prison sentences of up to eight years for allegedly abuse of office and misappropriation of public funds.
The defendants will appear in court this Wednesday at Section One of the Provincial Court (Audiencia) in a separate part of the so-called ‘Manilva case‘, which focuses on payments made by the Town Hall itself to the El Hacho residential complex.
The events date back to 2008, when the Entidad Urbanística Colaboradora de Conservación del Complejo Residencial El Hacho (the maintenance body for the El Hacho residential complex) was established. El Hacho is the largest housing development in the municipality, located next to Puerto de la Duquesa.
In his written submission, the prosecutor states that both the mayor and some members of the Town Hall’s governing board, including the current mayor, ordered or helped to approve, with their vote, transactions through which the El Hacho urban development body was funded with Town Hall money.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office considers that they did so «in full knowledge that they were exceeding their powers and despite the opposition of the municipal treasury, the municipal auditing department and the General Treasury of Social Security».
Indeed, in March 2009 Social Security informed the Town Hall that any amount it had to pay to El Hacho should be seized.
The prosecutor believes that the municipal officials acted «knowing that these transactions were unlawful» and «despite repeated reports from the municipal Treasury and auditing department opposing these transfers of public money».
In its provisional conclusions, the Public Prosecutor’s Office highlights that Antonia Muñoz allegedly ordered the payment of up to 113,422 euros to the maintenance body, some of which were allegedly made at the request of the Town Hall’s then legal adviser, Aitor Menoyo, who acted as secretary of the El Hacho maintenance body.
Menoyo, who was a personal adviser to the former mayor and is still legal adviser at the Town Hall, is also under investigation in the case, as he requested «in the knowledge that it was unlawful», according to the public prosecution’s submission, five transfers totalling 59,718 euros for El Hacho.
The prosecution stresses that there were also two other transactions approved by the municipal governing board authorising transfers of 44,019 euros of public funds from Manilva Town Hall to the maintenance body. In both, it places, among other councillors, the current mayor of Manilva, Mario Jiménez.
The prosecutor considers that the facts would constitute offences of abuse of office and misappropriation, which in the case of the former mayor, as alleged perpetrator, and her adviser, as alleged necessary accomplice, would be continuing offences.
For the former mayor, the prosecutor requests a sentence of eight years in prison, one year less for Menoyo, and absolute disqualification for 20 years for the offence of misappropriation, as well as special disqualification from public employment or office for 15 years.
Five other councillors, including the current mayor, will also appear in the dock on these charges. For all of them, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requests four years in prison for misappropriation and special disqualification for 17 years.
The prosecution also demands that the defendants and the El Hacho urban development body compensate Manilva Town Hall with 217,159 euros, which is the amount allegedly misappropriated.
In October 2017, when Diario SUR reported the prosecutor’s accusation, Mario Jiménez expressed his confidence in the justice system, but also his opposition to the prosecutor’s submission. He maintained that these were «one-off loans that have already been returned to the municipal coffers, with the corresponding interest, and for which there is documentary proof». He added that the loans were approved because Puerto de la Duquesa was going through a serious situation, with families who had gone five months without being paid.
In November 2017, the current governing partner Diego José Jimenez argued at a council meeting (which neither the current mayor Mario Jiménez nor the current cleaning councillor Paqui López, both under investigation in the case, attended) that Manilva Town Hall itself should join the El Hacho case as a party, as a «legal obligation» to defend municipal interests. However, the item did not go ahead because of votes against from Compromiso Manilva, whose spokesman at the council meeting, Marcos Ruiz, argued that the amounts handed over were a loan that had already been repaid; a vote against from the Izquierda Unida representative, Antonio Barragán, who considered joining the case unnecessary as there was no debt; and from the Partido Popular, whose representative Francisco Miguel Álvarez voted against considering that from a procedural point of view «it was not the right moment», saying that «the judge may consider that the Town Hall is coming to disturb and bother». The then ASM councillor, Emilio López, asked to be absent from the debate and the vote on that item, following the guidelines of the municipal secretary.
HIS CURRENT GOVERNING PARTNER GAVE THE REASONS WHY HE SHOULD RESIGN
Incredible as it may seem, at that council meeting in November 2017 the Socialist spokesman, Diego José Jiménez, then in opposition, did not directly call for the mayor’s resignation, but did give him some reasons why he should decide to resign. Among them, that «by being under investigation he is damaging the image of the municipality and because he is not focused on running the Town Hall but on not losing his freedom», he said.
Former mayor Antonia Muñoz, for her part, is being investigated over an alleged cronyism scheme that is examining the hiring of some 900 people at the Town Hall and municipal companies between 2007 and 2013.
Leer esta noticia en español →
