Julián Muñoz has returned to the front page of current news. The former mayor of Marbella, convicted of Operation Malaya but on parole since 2021, has admitted committing crimes of fraud and prevarication in a trial held this Monday. The First Section of the Malaga Court witnessed the hearing this morning, related to an urban planning agreement with General de Galerías Comerciales.
Also prosecuted alongside Muñoz are Juan Antonio Roca, the brain of Malaya and former Urban Planning advisor in Marbella, and the businessman Tomás Olivo. Of the three, only the former mayor has reached an agreement with the judge to accept his sentence, which will be 15 years of disqualification and 18 months in prison. Both Roca and Olivo have defended themselves staunchly against the accusations, ensuring that their constitutional rights have been violated and the crime has prescribed.
The accused has made his statement via videoconference, alleging that he is ill. Muñoz received conditional release for the Malaya case two years ago, after proving to the judge that he had a serious multiple pathology. Originally, the former politician had been sentenced to twenty years in prison for multiple cases of urban corruption, despite finally serving only five years and two months of the total period.
For their part, Roca and Olivo have insisted on declaring the trial a mistrial during their statements this Monday. It all dates back to 2020, when Muñoz and the former urban planning advisor agreed with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office on a sentence of six months in prison and five months of disqualification for each of the eight judicial proceedings for fraud and prevarication that they faced. However, this case would not have been affected by that agreement.
The Malaga Prosecutor's Office filed a civil claim for this case to be judged separately, in which the urban development agreement with General de Galerías Comerciales, a company owned by Olivo, is involved. In the presentation of preliminary issues, the defenses of the accused insist that the prosecutor “exceeds the purpose of the case”, considering that there are matters that have already been tried in other proceedings, such as the Malaya case.
The prosecutor has asked to respond in writing to Roca and Olivo's accusations, so the Marbella Courtroom has granted him a period of 30 days to formulate his reply. After this impasse, the previous questions raised by the defenses will be answered and a definitive date will be set for the trial, in which Julián Muñoz will no longer be involved having accepted his sentence in the first place.
