The Provincial Court has sentenced José Joaquín Moya, the former socialist mayor of Bigastro, to four years and six months in prison, and 11 years of disqualification from public office, for embezzlement, in that he appropriated 127,000 euros of public money from the sale of municipal land.
In his capacity as mayor, he sold the land as an urban plot to a development company in 2005, despite the fact that the plan had not been approved by the Generalitat.
The council secretary Antonio Saseta was also sentenced to 2 years in prison and five years of disqualification for the same crime.
Moya (73 years old) must also pay 59,000 euros as civil liability to the Bigastro City Council, and jointly, with the former secretary, another 68,000 euros to the municipality, plus interest and half of the costs of the process.
The sentence handed down by the Seventh Section of the Provincial Court of Alicante based in Elche can be appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
