New run-in with the justice of Ignacio Magaña, socialist councilor in the Zaragoza City Council. The Aragonese politician was denounced on March 5, a holiday in the capital, for driving without points, for which this Tuesday he will have to undergo a speedy trial for a crime against road safety, of which he already has a record.
The events denounced took place that day at around 4:50 in the morning in the central Camino de las Torres street. After a Local Police patrol stopped him for committing a traffic violation, the agents checked with the station that he lacked all the points.
At that time, Magaña was informed that the infraction constitutes a crime against road safety sanctioned with a sentence of 3 to 6 months in prison or a fine of between 1 and 2 years, the amount of which is imposed depending on the economic capacity of the offender and that can be substituted with work for the benefit of the community. In addition, his vehicle was brought to justice.
The circulatory problems of Magaña, 43, are not new. In June 2020, the councilor was fined 1,900 euros and lost the last 4 points of his driving license for driving without insurance and at a speed that doubled the speed allowed (the radar caught him at 68 km/hour in a limited section at 30km/hour)
At that time, he said that it was an "error" that he attributed to "an oversight", apologized and did not appeal the sanction. So, neither he offered his resignation nor did his party open a file on him or sanction him. His boss, the current candidate for mayor of Zaragoza Lola Ranera, said then that “we all make mistakes. He will have to assume his sanction, like any citizen.
More serious was his arrest in November 2021 for an alleged crime of sexist violence that his ex-wife denounced. Magaña, who was facing a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison as the alleged perpetrator of two crimes of minor injuries and another of coercion, always defended his innocence, and assured that he had never mistreated his wife and that the complaint was only due to the process from separation.
The mayor was discharged as a PSOE militant, but he did not renounce his minutes and continued with his work in plenary sessions and commissions as a non-attached. In the end, he was acquitted last fall with a final sentence and the PSOE accepted him back into the municipal group.
The magistrate in charge of the case pointed out that the presumption of innocence prevailed in the face of the conflicting versions of the two parties, and hence the ruling was exoneration. Even so, given the possibility that the mayor's ex-wife filed an appeal, the protection order remained in force.
In the absence of two and a half months for the municipal elections, the PSOE announced on Tuesday the opening of a disciplinary file against the mayor and his temporary suspension from membership until the new file is resolved. It is expected that this Thursday the situation will be analyzed at the meeting of the Provincial Executive Commission of the PSOE Zaragoza.
“We are not going to tolerate any socialist public office committing this type of irregularity. That is why we act quickly and forcefully, demanding exemplarity from all our public officials," the party said in a statement.
