The Court of Granada has ruled out a favorable treatment towards the concessionary company of the service investigated in the case
The three former members of the leadership of the public Board of Trustees that manages the Alhambra in Granada and the businessman who was tried for alleged irregularities in the awarding and management of the audio guides in the Nasrid monument have been acquitted by the Court of Granada.
This cause sat on the bench the former director of the monument Maria del Mar Villafrancathe former secretary and the former head of accounting of the Nasrid patronage, and the sole administrator of the company awarded the service investigated, Stendhal Museum Solutions.
Judicial sources have informed EFE on Monday that, in the acquittal for the four defendants, the court understands thate the actions of the defendants were not criminal and that, in the case of the dome of the monument, there were favorable reports from the legal office and the General Intervention of the Junta de Andalucía.
It does not follow, therefore, the sources have added, that there was a favorable treatment towards the concessionary company of the investigated service, nor that there was a relationship between the members of the Board of Trustees prosecuted and the company, but rather a distant treatment.
Against this sentence of the Court of Granada, which has been notified this Monday, cassation appeal before the Supreme Courtas detailed by the sources.
The Prosecutor’s Office maintained in its final conclusions its request for five years in prison for Villafranca and for the one who was secretary of the board of trustees, and ten years in prison for the sole administrator of the winning company.
The cause, which also sat on the bench the former chief accountant of the Nasrid patronage -only accused by the Junta de Andalucía as a private accusation-, investigated possible crimes of administrative prevarication, embezzlement of public funds and money laundering.
At the start of the hearing, the former director of what has historically been the most visited monument in Spain dHe declared that he had always acted in the public interest, that he never intended to go against the law and that he had no intention of benefiting the company that was awarded the audio guide service.
Villafranca, who in statements to journalists attributed the cause to a “chase”said before the court that it was due to what was ordered by the plenary session of the board of trustees itself, in accordance with a payment plan and a compensation agreement for the debts that the winner of the audio guides had contracted.
For her part, the former secretary of the venue placed the responsibility for monitoring the contract in the contracting body, acknowledged that “problems” were being generated with the company and explained that she also tried to promote a means of urgency for payments.
According to the letter of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Stendhal company would have caused economic damage to the Alhambra as a consequence of whats breaches detected in the execution of the contract, with the “consent and collusion” of Villafrancia and the former general secretary, of more than 1.25 million euros, based on the accounting of the company itself and not on the actual sales data.