This month has been court-time season for ex-mayor, Juan Carlos Benavides, for two different reasons.
Firstly, the fraudulent bankruptcy case has finally reached the courtroom, after months of deep investigation. This is the most difficult accusation that he has had to face and without doubt the most unlikely to see an acquittal due to the large body of circumstantial evidence, as the Public Prosecutor sees it.
Shortly after being found guilty over the Tropical Fruits Case, which condemned him and several others – amongst them his right-hand man, Rafael Contreras – to a staggering fine (over a million euros), both Juan Carlos and his wife, and Rafael Contreras and his wife, turned up before a judge to register a divorce. Both couples registered their divorces on the 22nd of July 2005.
Both men declared generous allowances for the ‘ex-wives’ and children, even though the said offspring were fully emancipated, having their own homes and jobs: Sr Contreras declared an allowance of 1,000 euros (500 euros for each of his children) and Sr. Benavides declared 1,150 for each of his two offspring. This effectively left both men ‘broke’ and unable to pay the huge fine that was facing them, and pending an appeal before the Supreme Court.
To make matters worse, photos of a seemingly colourful ceremony in Morocco hit the press, which the Ideal newspaper gleefully published, showing Sr Benavides and his ‘ex’ being carried around on high, in full traditional costumes, like a “couple of newly weds” – hardly the picture of a broken marriage.
So, Rafael Contreras and Juan Carlos Benavides – or better said, their lawyers, have attempted to prove that the coincidence of both men filing for divorce on the same day, both claiming improbable maintenance allowance had nothing whatsoever to do with the men facing a devastating fine for a previous case, and that Benny’s Moroccan ‘reconciliation’ was proof of a mock divorce.
The hearing is over and the judges are deliberating…
Meanwhile, the provincial Public Prosecutor has raised another charge against Sr. Benavides, a well known lawyer and the ex municipal architect of Almuñécar for an apparent traffic of influence, or more accurately, allowing a private school to illegally erect a classroom.
However, as the classroom is a prefab and not a permanent fixture, there is very little chance of this charge prospering, however the said Public Prosecutor appears bent upon ‘firing as many rounds as possible in Benny’s direction’ in the hope that one of them will bring him down.
The hearing was set for nine in the morning but was over in minutes because the accused refused to testify. The defence had also cited five witnesses to declare in their clients defence, but only one of them had turned up, according to the Ideal newspaper.
The trial will continue tomorrow with the appearance of prosecution witnesses.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)