The Court of Granada has acquitted the previous director of the Board of Trustees of the Alhambra and the Generalife, María del Mar Villafranca, and the remainder of the defendants within the so-called ‘audio information case’, by which alleged irregularities within the awarding and administration of the Audio information rental service for the monument, thought of probably the most visited in Spain.
Thus, the Second Section has acquitted Villafranca of the crimes of administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, fraud in administrative contracting and doc falsification for which she was accused, in accordance with the ruling, to which Europa Press and in opposition to which it’s attainable to enchantment earlier than the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court.
Villafranca, who resigned in 2015 on account of this case, was dealing with a request from the prosecutor for 5 years in jail. During this time he has defended his administration. In the trial he declared that he by no means participated within the contracting of the Alhambra audio information service and defined that he didn’t intend “in any respect” to learn the corporate that offered this service nor did he suspect any actions opposite to the legislation, since actually he all the time acted ” guided by the general public curiosity”.
“Very joyful”
In a primary evaluation to Europa Press after studying of the ruling, Villafranca has acknowledged that she is “very joyful” with this decision and that the reality has lastly prevailed, regardless of, she mentioned, “having needed to wait greater than seven and a half years with all that this has represented” for her household, for herself and for her public picture.
The sentence additionally acquits the previous basic secretary of the monument, Victoria Eugenia Chamorro, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requested the identical sentence and for a similar crimes as Villafranca.
The former head of the Economic and Income Accounting Section of the Alhambra, José MV, was additionally acquitted and was solely accused by the Junta de Andalucía, which was an individual within the course of as an aggrieved social gathering. for the alleged financial harm that this case induced to the monument and that the prosecutor estimated at multiple million euros.
For the businessman who was awarded the audio information service, the Prosecutor’s Office requested the best penalty, ten years in jail and a fantastic of 1 million euros, though he has additionally lastly been acquitted of the crimes of administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, fraud in administrative contracting, misappropriation and cash laundering for which he was accused, in accordance with the ruling.
The businessman defended that he was “strictly” ruled by the contract, each to set the costs of the service and to pay the price to the Alhambra, though he acknowledged that when making funds “by no means” he was requested by the Board of the Alhambra for the receipts relating to the variety of audio guides that he rented as documentary help of the billing quantity that he generated, emphasizing that the Board of Trustees paid “badly and late” and that though he had money owed with the monument through the execution of this contract, the Alhambra additionally “he owed some huge cash” for the availability of different companies within the monumental complicated.