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Hope for owners of illegal property in Marbella
By h.b. - Nov 20, 2006 - 8:54 AM

The threatened Banana Beach building in Marbella - Photo EFE
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Legal complications indicate that the demolition of the illegal property will not take place
Residents of the Banana Beach building in Marbella who are facing the demolition of their homes because they have been built on a green zone finally have some form of possible legal defence.

This is known in Spain as the principle of ‘public faith in the registry’. Some legal experts consider that this principle establishes that the person who purchases a home believing the data on it in the local registry, must be allowed to keep ownership.

The dean of the College of Registrars for Property in Western Andalucía, Manuel Martín, has also commented that the mortgage law in Spain protects the rights of proprietors who buy property in good faith, based on the information contained in the public registry at the time. It would also mean that a building could only be knocked down unless all the individual owners were denounced, and that it could be proved that they knew that the licence granted for the building was null.
He thought therefore that demolition of occupied homes was unlikely.

Other experts have also said that such demolitions if ordered would take years to be finalised as the legal challenges from the owners would have to pass through the courts. Then the local town hall and the promoters would face massive compensation claims.

The PP leader in Andalucía, Javier Arenas, has commented that the demolition of the illegal homes in Marbella would be ‘absolutely immoral’.
‘Under no concept will I allow the residents of good faith who have purchased a home, pay for the disasters of the Junta and the GIL governments’, he said.

The Andalucian Supreme Court of Justice has meanwhile confirmed that it will take statements from the owners of the threatened buildings before deciding on future demolitions.

Earlier however, several people commented that they thought demolition of the illegal homes should be carried out:

The President of the Marbella Management Committee, Diego Martin Reyes, has said he is worried about the situation, but that he was convinced that the firm sentence from the Andalucian Supreme Court ordering demolition should be carried out. He said that it was not a problem exclusive to Marbella, but that there were more than 400 challenged licences in the town awaiting final sentence.

The Andalucian Ombudsman, José Chamizo, has also supported the demolition of 334 homes in a total of seven developments in Marbella whose licences were annulled by the Andalucian Supreme Court. He said that what justice ordered had to be carried out, however lamentable it was for the owners of the buildings. He said each owner should be looked at on an individual basis to see if they had been tricked into making the purchase, adding that the judiciary should study the alternatives and take the rights of the owners into account.

The regional government delegate in Cádiz, José Antonio Gómez Periñán, has also come out in favour of demolition. His interests are the Montenmedio and Las Beatillas cases in his province, but he said that the Junta’s town planning policy would not be credible unless illegal buildings were demolished.

The Spanish Association of Technical Architects has also issued a statement saying that the illegal homes should be demolished, provided that measures are taken to limit what they call the ‘social effect’ of the measure.

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There is a new name now being linked to the Malaya Case in Marbella. Judah Eleazar Binstock, is a 78 year old British businessman and financier and is now believed to have been the person who financed trips taken by Marbella councillors the week before the motion of no confidence was placed against Julián Muñoz. He is now thought to have been hidden in the background and pulling the strings behind much of the corruption in Marbella. This information has been given to Judge Miguel Angel Torres in the declaration from the ex councillor Carmen Revilla.

Binstock, who has large real estate interests in Marbella including the Villa La Magnolia in the Camino de la Cascada de Camoján, is reported to be wanted for questioning by the British police in connection to several financial frauds including the BCCI case.
Actually born in East Germany, he grew up in Moscow where is was a member of the Communist Party. He took up British nationality at the end of the sixties. He is thought to have a large income from several casinos. United States intelligence services link him to the Syrian magnateMonzer Al Kassar and Adnan Kashogui and arms sales of missiles to Iran and possible links to Al Qaeda.

Binstock has been missing since the Malaya case broke in Marbella and there are some reports that he has travelled to his mansion in Paris. The missing and wanted councillor, Carlos Fernández, is said to have had a relationship with Binstock’s daughter.

Carlos Fernández is now reported to want to negotiate with the prosecutor’s office in the Malaya case. The news was given by his lawyer José Luis Ortega, who said his client still intended to present himself to the authorities at the end of this month.

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Meanwhile, the declarations from those implicated in the Malaya case and real estate corruption in Marbella has been continuing:

The ex Municipal Real Estate Assessor in Marbella, Juan Antonio Roca declared to the Instruction Judge 1 in Marbella, Carmen Rodríguez Medel, for some two hours and a half on Friday.
This declaration comes as a result of a complaint presented by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor. Roca’s lawyer, José Anibel Álvarez, told the press that his client told the judge on repeated occasions that during the years 1997 and 1998, being investigated in the case, the Junta de Andalucía was in ‘perfect knowledge’ of the real estate agreements which were approved by the Marbella Town Hall. On Thursday Roca had also faced more questioning about 8 other real estate agreements dating from the same period, and he will face questions about another 9 deals this coming February.

Spanish singer Isabel Pantoja - Photo www.isabelpantoja.es
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The El País newspaper has been printing more details from the court summary of the Malaya case in Marbella. It says that judge Miguel Angel Torres has reached the conclusion that the councillors were acting as frontmen for the man allegedly at the centre of the corruption, Juan Antonio Roca. Each councillor was receiving an envelope with extra money, in addition to their regular wage, the envelopes coming from Roca and containing upto 3,400 € a month more. Two have told the judge that they understood that the money was black money while others said they considered that the money was a loan to help them over tough times. Some told the judge that they thought it was a bonus or incentive as a result of their work.

The Italian who has been arrested in the latest stage of the case, Giovanni Piero Montaldo, was also investigated on money laundering charges linked to the Mafia back in Málaga in 2002 according to the La Opinion de Málaga newspaper. He was allegedly linked then to the trafficking of cocaine from South American to Europe. He is currently named as the administrator of some 28 companies, most of them in the real estate sector. He was released on bail on Friday afternoon after the payment of 150,000 €.

The last person to be arrested in the Malaya case, the businessman José Miguel Villarroya, entered prison on remand on Friday, being unable to find the 500,000 € bail money requested by Judge Torres. He faces charges of money laundering and the misuse of public funds.

Monday sees the declarations from three ex Marbella councillors, Rafael González Carrasco, José Luis Fernández Garrosa, and José Luis Troyano, before Judge Carmen Rodríguez Medal. It follows charges placed against them and the businessman Francisco Arteche by the Anti-corruption Prosecutor.

Meanwhile the Andalucian Supreme Court has denied press reports which appeared last Thursday claiming that Roca had given presents to a Málaga judge. They say this is not in fact the case.

Finally the Spanish singer Isabel Pantoja has described herself as a victim linked to the case. For the past three years she has been in a relationship with Julián Muñoz, who was Mayor of Marbella at the time they got together. Speaking in a statement sent to Antena Tres television, she claimed she felt tricked if the published news that Muñoz has been sending large amounts of money to his ex wife Mayte Zaldiver turns out to be true. ‘He told me on repeated occasions that he had no money’, she said. ‘I’ve been working to support him for years!’.