Spain’s Supreme Court to hear appeals for Marbella’s Malaya Case

SPAIN’S Supreme Court will this week to hear the appeals in Marbella’s Malaya case – the largest trial ever seen in Andalucia.

A total of 52 appeals have been placed between the accused, the Prosecutors’ Office, the Junta and the State Advocacy.

An incredible 94 people were tried as part of the two-year-long trial, overseen by Judge Jose Godino.

The Malaya case centres around the laundering of €2.4 billion via Marbella Town Hall – including bribery, embezzlement and influence peddling.

Corruption crackdown saw almost two thirds of Marbella’s councillors hauled in, as well as a series of well-known construction and real estate bosses.

The scale of the corruption proved so pervasive that control of Marbella Town Hall had to be temporarily handed over to a caretaker administration appointed by the Junta until local elections could take place in 2007.

So big was the case that a completely new court had to be built to house the hearing.

Judge Godino spent 14 months deliberating the case, before handing down a total of 29 years in October 2013.

The majority of those accused are appealing the decision, including top dog Juan Antonio Roca, ex-Mayor of Marbella Marisol Yague and the ex-councillor Isabel Garcia Marcos.

Roca was handed 11 years in jail and ordered to pay a €240 million fine.

Former mayor Marisol Yague was sentenced to six years, while Garcia Marcos was sentenced to four years.

But ex-mayor Julian Munoz will not be appealing his sentence of two years.

Roca’s lawyers meanwhile are calling on the Supreme Court for what is essentially a complete revision of the whole process.

They are particularly criticising the searches carried out and the telephone tapping – insisting the process had been ‘demonised’ with a ‘pre-determined conviction’.

But the anti-corruption prosecutor and the Junta have also lodged an appeal – which if effective would increase the sentences for the ex-councillors and businessmen, as well as increasing the fines.

Appeals are predicted to be a lengthy process, unless the Supreme Court decides to simply throw them all out, or increase the sentences as requested by the prosecution.