Torrevieja’s Criminal Court was the venue for a private complaint filed by the current Torrevieja mayor 12 years ago against his disgraced predecessor and former Torrevieja mayor Pedro Hernandez Mateo.
The complaint seeks a further 4 years of disqualification of Mateo from public office, hinging around his failure to hold 11 monthly council meetings during the period 2003 to 2007, a meeting that is mandatory in Spain for municipalities of over 20,000 residents.
Mateo’s defence, however, demands his acquittal saying that it was nothing more than an administrative irregularity that should have been resolved at the time.
Mayor Dolon said that the failure to hold the plenary meetings prevented councillors and citizens from overseeing the government’s work and questioning their decisions, however the defence lawyer, Benito Sánchez Martos, and the defendant himself in response, said that the failure to hold the meetings coincided with holiday periods, usually in August, when many issues could not be discussed because the majority of councillors were on vacation.
Hernandez Mateo is already serving a sentence of disqualification from public office of 11 years following his involvement in the award of a municipal waste disposal contract.
