Marbella Town Hall has estimated that the amount of money diverted from the town’s coffers by the Malaya and two smaller Saqueo cases totals more than 500 million €.

ex municipal real estate assessor, Juan Antonio Roca, has again rejected the allegations against him, and has demanded that the court accept the admission of dozens more items of evidence.

In a 68 sheet submission, Roca calls for ‘dozens’ more items of evidence. Both Roca and his daughter Maria, who is also among the accused, have been given extra time to assemble their defence already, given that their lawyer, Aníbal Álvarez, left the case in March 2006 as she could not be paid from his embargoed bank accounts.

Some 250 journalists are accredited to follow the case in Málaga Ciudad de la Justicia from Monday. It’s the largest corruption case ever in Spain, with a total of 96 accused.

It will start with a study of the ‘previous questions’, and for the first month or so the defence lawyers will be able to make requests, call for phone tap evidence or house searches to be declared void, or to claim that the time some of the accused were held in prison on remand was excessive, or even to claim that the Málaga Provincial Court is not the competent body to hear the trial, given that the prosecution alleges crimes carried out across the geography of the country.

Meanwhile Marbella Town Hall has estimated that the amount of money diverted from the town’s coffers by the Malaya and two smaller Saqueo cases totals more than 500 million €. Roca has already, on one occasion, declared that his assets were worth more than 120 million €.

Marbella Town Hall has also added its own requests to those of the prosecutor, and called for a 7.5 year prison sentence for ex Mayor, Julián Muñoz, and 3.5 years for the diva, Isabel Pantoja.



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