Almuñécar Mayor found not guilty of misusing public funds

Almuñécar Mayor found not guilty of misusing public funds
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By m.p. - Dec 15, 2009 - 3:49 PM
The case originated in a complaint made by Juan Carlos Benavides against his predecessor as Mayor

Juan Carlos Benavides, the Mayor of Almuñécar - EFE archive

A jury found the Mayor of Almuñécar not guilty this Tuesday of the charge of misuse of public funds for which Juan Carlos Benavides could have been sentenced to two years in prison. He was also facing a possible fine of 27,000 €.

Europa Press reports that the nine members of the jury took less than two hours to deliberate their verdict on the second day of the trial which had been taking place at Granada’s provincial court since Monday. The Mayor had been accused by the prosecutor of using public money to pay a bond in a case he brought against Almuñécar’s former Partido Popular Mayor, Juan Luis González Montoro. The amount paid for the bond was 9,000 €.

The prosecutor had argued that the Mayor brought the case in his own name, but the jury considered, after taking into account documentary evidence and statements from witnesses, that it was in fact brought in his capacity as a representative of the Town Hall. They therefore saw no crime in his using public money for the bond.

The jury also considered that the Mayor’s complaint against his predecessor had a public purpose. The case against Benavides originated from a complaint he made against González Montoro in October 2004 claiming that he had used public funds during the local electoral campaign to pay for activities which had been banned by the local elections board.

The EFE news agency reports that the complaint was archived in 2006, but notes that the judge who archived it asked in the ruling for Benavides to be investigated by the prosecution service over the money he used to pay the bond.

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