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Some 50 people have been convicted in a major corruption
case centred on the Spanish resort of Marbella.
The case, involving bribery, property fraud and money
laundering, resulted in convictions for senior officials.
These included former city planning chief Juan Antonio Roca,
who was jailed for 11 years and fined 240m euros (£202m, $300m) for pocketing
huge sums.
Two of the coastal city's former mayors were also handed
jail terms over the scams, which came to light in 2006.
Marisol Yague and Julian Munoz received sentences of six and
two years, respectively.
A total of 85 men and women were accused in what is thought
to be the biggest-ever case of local political corruption in Spanish history.
Roca, who managed the city's planning department in the
1990s, became one of Spain's richest men before he was accused of masterminding
the corruption.
He was initially given the job at the peak of Marbella's
construction boom by the city's notorious, late mayor, Jesus Gil, who died in
2004.
The verdict read out in court in the province of Malaga
detailed a corruption ring involving building permits being handed out to a
succession of officials in return for envelopes stuffed with cash.
Roca himself became extremely rich, with a portfolio of
ranches, expensive cars and boats.
The sentences for Roca and the two disgraced mayors were
significantly less than those demanded by prosecutors.
They had sought a 30-year term for Roca, who was detained in
2006, but the court took into account his admission of the scale of corruption.
Marbella's local government was forced to replace large
numbers of personnel after the case was exposed.
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