Three Former Orihuela Councillors Acquitted on Procedural Grounds

The Provincial Court of Alicante, based in Elche, has acquitted three former councillors of Orihuela accused of prevarication and fraud for, allegedly, paying almost two million euro in invoices without a contract during the period between 2004 and 2008.

The court has acquitted them without even holding the trial, as the defence of the three accused former PP councillors Antonio Rodríguez Murcia, Manuel Abadía and José Antonio Aniorte (former councillor for the Orihuela Costa), raised the concern that the Prosecutor’s Office failed to comply with the procedural deadlines to file an appeal against the initial filing of the case.

In addition, the defence also pointed out that it was a tried case, since many of these invoices were the subject of the Brugal case, from which they were also acquitted.

As a result of the presentation of anomalies, the trial did not take place. The public accusation maintained that the defendants, all of them responsible for the Services and Infrastructure area in different years, consciously and arbitrarily and with the intention of financially harming the City Council for the benefit of four companies, claimed services and signed the invoices for them in matters such as cleaning municipal spaces, waste collection or pruning.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested for each of the defendants a sentence of 25 years of disqualification from holding the public office of mayor or councillor and four years in prison for the crimes of prevarication and fraud.