Mariano Rajoy, the president of the conservative Partido Popular, pictured right, has arrived in the troubled city of  Marbella, reeling under a multi-milllion euro corruption scandal. Yesterday the chief of the local police, Rafael del Pozo, was charged following a five-hour interview with a judge.  The charges are not clear, but after dealing with the formalities in respect of the 20,000 euro bail for his client, Pozo’s lawyer claimed that there were no accusations of bibery nor misappropriation of public funds.
In an unprecedented move the Spanish parliament has voted unanimously in Senate to dissolve Marbella council to deal with the still unfolding corruptions scandal that has seen 23 arrests so far.
Also before the court yesterday was Torremolinos businessman Rafael Llopis who is alleged to have paid money to obtain advertising contracts.  He was detained without bail bringing the total number in custody to 12.
The house of the man alleged to be at the centre of the Marbella corruption, Juan Antonio Roca, has been shown in a video released by the Ministry of the Interior shot inside one of his properties. It shows many animal heads hanging as hunting trophies and stuffed examples of exotic animals he has killed –including a giraffe. A Miró original painting hangs in one of the bathrooms.
Meanwhile Marbella’s Deputy Mayor, Isabel García Marcos has presented an appeal against her remand without bail. She claims Judge Torres is acting beyond his jurisdiction in the case.
The Partido Popular are continuing to demand immediate elections and today Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the opposition will be in Marbella to give that message.
Rajoy considers it should be the State and not the regional government who take over the responsibility of town planning in Marbella.
Today also sees the decision of the Consejo de Estado, as to whether there is enough time for elections to be held now or when they are already scheduled for May next year. 
 

MARBELLA SCANDAL TIMELINE

Rajoy to support push for early election
By: valencialife.net
Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Marbella judge, Miguel Angel Torres, heard evidence from six lawyers from the Madrid firm Sanchez Zubizarreta and Soriano, after all six were driven to the court in a police van. They are all accused of being involved in an enormous money laundering scandal, and four of them were sent to jail.

Previously, Judge Torres has jailed six people that he found were involved in the scandal: former mayoress Marisol Yague; deputy mayoress Isabel Garcia Marcos; the head of the Urbanisation department and the alleged head of the corruption ring, Juan Antonio Roca; the Marbella councillor for Traffic and Transport Victoriano Rodriguez; businessmen Ismael Perez and Oscar Benavente and Montserrat Corulla, whom Judge Torres accused of being one of the main figureheads in the money laundering operation.

In another development, it has been revealed that the wife of Marbella police superintendent Rafael del Pozo worked for a company affiliated with the town hall and made 4,000 Euros a month. Superintendent Del Pozo himself is expected to appear before judge Miguel Angel Torres to answer charges of obstructing justice and obeying orders from jailed councillor, Juan Antonio Roca.

Meanwhile, Mariano Rajoy, the president of the conservative Partido Popular, has decided to travel to Marbella on Thursday as a gesture of support for his party's candidate in the Marbella elections, Angeles Muñoz, whom he described as "the only person not in jail or threatened with it."

President Zapatero's cabinet is set to meet in Madrid tonight with one item on the agenda: Marbella. 

PP pushes for early Marbella council elections
By: valencialife.net
Monday, April 3, 2006

Marbella judge Miguel Angel Torres yesterday decided that deputy mayoress Isabel Garcia Marcos should go to prison for her part in the Marbella corruption scandal. She will now join former mayoress Marisol Yague in Alhaurin de la Torre jail. In addition, thus far judge Torres has jailed Juan Antonio Roca, the head of the council town planning department, Victoriano Rodriguez, the 70 year old former member of the GIL party, who was responsible for traffic control in Marbella town hall and Ismael Perez, the Madrid based owner of a vehicle leasing company. Today, he is expected to hear testimony from Jose Jaen, the Culture councillor and businessman, Jamie Hachuel.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Manuel Chaves, the regional president of Andalucía, is prepared to dissolve Marbella town council and appoint an administrator. However, apparently, he is not prepared to call elections, as the latest polls show that the Partido Popular would win hands down, and this is something that his party wants to avoid at any cost. The PP, however, believes that even more unease amongst the people of Marbella would be if an administrator is appointed until the next elections in 2007, and this view is born out by Pio Garcia-Escudero, the PP spokesman in the Senate in Madrid, as it is the Senate that will have the task of legally dismissing the council. Mr. Garcia-Escudero expressed the belief that elections could take place in Marbella on May 27.

Fourth man jailed in Marbella corruption scandal
By: valencialife.net
Sunday, April 2, 2006

Marbella Judge Miguel Angel Torres yesterday sent Victoriano Rodriguez, the former Traffic councillor of Marbella to jail after hearing testimony from him for over three hours. He is the fourth person jailed following Mayoress Marisol Yague, Urbanizing councilor Juan Antonio Roca and a Madrid businessman.

However Judge Torres freed Town Secretary Leopoldo Barrantes and the director of a transport company, but imposed bail of 20,000 and 12,000 Euros on two businessmen detained in Marbella.

Meanwhile, acting mayor Tomas Riñones stated that things must continue in the town hall in order to avoid a power vacuum.

Two jailed in Marbella corruption scandal
By: valencialife.net
Saturday, April 1, 2006

A Marbella judge has jailed Juan Antonio Roca (second photo, centre), an adviser to and former head of the Urbanisation department of Marbella town hall to jail, after he had read a statement to the court. He is the main person accused of money laundering in a huge operation that covered a lot of Andalucia as well as Madrid, as police revealed yesterday that they had more evidence as a result of the wiretaps they had carried out during the investigation.

In addition, Judge Miguel Angel Torres has ordered that Marbella mayoress Marisol Yague (fourth photo) be sent to prison as well. 

It was also revealed that a large part of the cash confiscated by the police was found in a bag that the deputy mayoress of Marbella Isabel Garcia Marcos kept in her home.

As the first part of the operation ended, police revealed that in addition to 830,000 Euros in cash, they had confiscated 275 works of art, 103 horses, 14 cars, 24 historical weapons, five kilos of jewellery and a helicopter in addition to the five vanloads of documents that will be used in the case.

Meanwhile, politically, the Marbella case has landed like a hot potato in the lap of the Andalucia president Manuel Chaves, who has been accused of knowing that a huge mafia-like network of corruption was operating in the region, yet did nothing about it.

Further arrests in Marbella town hall corruption scandal
By: valencialife.net
Friday, March 31, 2006

It has been revealed that police have thus far detained 23 people allegedly involved in urban development corruption in Marbella, with the latest detention of a lawyer made in Madrid last night. Equally, an incredible amount of material has been confiscated as well as bank accounts containing 2,400 million Euros.

The police operation took place in Marbella, Malaga, Madrid, Murcia, Cadiz and Huelva, and amongst the items confiscated are 275 works of art including eight paintings by Joan Miro and other works by artists of "immense prestige" that are currently being assessed and valued by experts from the Spanish Patrimony Directive. 

Also confiscated were: three cases of jewellery, weighing approximately five kilos; 465,000 Euros in cash; 103 horses valued at more than three million Euros; a helicopter, and fourteen cars.

In Murcia, police have detained one person and collected evidence from various houses, one of which was set inside an estate of 100 hectares that has an orange grove, heliport, three industrial warehouses and  a small palace of a house, inside which police discovered a gold mine of objects whose value is difficult to calculate. These include old cameras, a large number of jewels, a golden chalice, a highly valued old sextant, three old Mercedes cars in perfect working order as well as a perfectly working ancient bus.

The third photo shows a march organised by around twenty local residents' associations demanding the resignation of the entire Marbella town council, an initiative which is being supported by a number of prominent political parties and trade unions.

Marbella mayoress arrested on corruption charges
By: ThinkSpain
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The mayoress of Marbella, Marisol Yague, and eighteen others have been arrested in a National Police investigation into a number alleged cases of corruption, abuse of power, price-fixing and extorsion of public funds.

Marbella town hall was evacuated at 9.30am this morning except for the head of Information Systems and municipal secretary, Leopoldo Barrantes, who is helping the officers with their investigation.

Also searched this morning was the home of the mayoress, and a number of other municipal offices, including the Urban Planning office, the head of which, Juan Antonio Roca, has also been detained.

A number of properties in Madrid -where six people have been arrested- and Murcia, have also been searched and further arrests are not ruled out.