Costa Tropical
A busy time in court for the Almuñécar Mayor next month
By m.p. - Nov 15, 2009 - 10:30 AM
email this article
Juan Carlos Benavides - EFE
Juan Carlos Benavides is on the accused bench in three separate cases in December
The Mayor of Almuñécar takes the stand in three separate cases next month, when he will be tried for charges of slander, misuse of public funds and planning crimes.
The slander case is the first which will come to court: Juan Carlos Benavides takes the stand at Criminal Court No. 1 in Motril on 2nd December , when he faces a possible fine of more than 20,000 € over allegedly slanderous comments he made about two Socialist politicians during a council meeting in 2006. It was what the Mayor claimed as a lack of support from his party in the controversy which arose over those comments which led him to resign from the Partido Andalucista and join the newly-formed Convergencia Andaluza in March that year.
His next date, Ideal newspaper reports, is at the provincial court on 14th and 15th December, when Benavides will be tried by jury for allegedly using Town Hall funds to pay a bond of 6,000 € in a complaint he brought against Almuñécar’s former Partido Popular Mayor, Juan Luis González Montoro. González faces his own charges in that complaint on the 16th of the month, the same day the Almuñécar Mayor will be on the accused bench again, on that occasion, for alleged planning crimes in connection with construction of the sports pavilion in La Herradura.
Benavides is also awaiting a date for his appeal hearing at the provincial court against a ruling from a court in Motril which found him guilty of coercion in the case of the municipal television station, Medios Informativos Costa Tropical.
There has been some good news for the Mayor recently, however: his acquittal in the Tropical Fruits case was confirmed by the Supreme Court last month.