Again, the trial of Pepe Vegara, the Mayor of Orihuela, has been put off. The Orihuela Criminal Court No. 1 has decided to put off the hearing that was supposed to happen today, Friday November 14th, because the judge who was supposed to be in charge is sick and can’t go. The session is now planned for November 21st. Unless something else happens, the proceedings will start up again then.
This delay makes Vegara’s legal limbo even worse. Since January, when the trial had to be put on hold during its first session because his counsel was on medical leave, the mayor himself said this. The Mayor said he still had “confidence in the justice system” and looked “just as calm as he did 20 years ago.” He also said again that he would not accept any plea bargain with the prosecution and would only think about being found not guilty.
Vegara is accused of committing an ongoing crime by altering business paperwork and two counts of tax fraud for things he is said to have done wrong in 2005 while he was in charge of Estación ITV, the firm that owns ITV Vega Baja. The Public Prosecutor’s Office says that the company’s directors set up a scheme to create fake deductible expenses by pretending to buy 100,000 promotional planners. This would have let them lower their taxable income for Corporate Income Tax and VAT. The Prosecutor’s Office says that the Tax Agency didn’t collect €760,000 in Corporate Income Tax and €157,000 in VAT.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office wants the mayor to spend three years in prison for forgery and three years for tax fraud. They also want the four offenders to pay almost €900,000 together. Vegara categorically refuses any plea deal: “I am so sure of my innocence that I have no problem turning down any deal the Prosecutor’s Office offers me,” he said during the last break in the trial.
The case has also had effects on politics. After the trial date was set, the Valencian People’s Party (PPCV) started an internal investigation into the mayor. Vegara has downplayed this, saying that “the party opens an investigation because it has to” and that his work as head of the City Council “continues as normal.” He has also said he won’t step down, even though the opposition has asked him to.
The Mayor has kept doing his official duties while waiting for the trial to start on November 21st. After the last delay, he went to Fitur to represent the municipality. He stressed that his duty is “to continue working for Orihuela every day.”
The hearing should continue several sessions, unless something else goes wrong. The hearing on the 21st will be very important in deciding if the trial will finally start after a week full of unexpected occurrences in the legal system.
Author: Derek Appleton
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