Imelsa's first trial already has a sentence: 7 years and 10 months in prison for the 'money junkie' by Thematica

VALENCIA, 24 Jan. (EUROPE PRESS) -

The first trial for the Imelsa macro-cause has already been sentenced: the fifth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia has sentenced the former manager of the defunct public company of the Provincial Council and self-styled 'money junkie' to seven years and ten months in prison ' for the crimes of prevarication, embezzlement and falsehood and money laundering in the first piece of the case, that of Thematica.

In this piece, whose hearing began in May of last year, alleged irregularities in awards to the Thematica Events company were judged. The courtroom has imposed a sentence on Benavent similar to that claimed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which requested eight years and three in prison for the defendant. However, he has acquitted the former mayor of Moncada with the PP and former vice president of the provincial corporation, Juan José Medina, for whom the public prosecutor's office requested five years in prison.

The trial came after more than six years since the first arrests were made in this procedure - in 2014 Esquerra Unida took some recordings with the alleged irregularities to the Prosecutor's Office and in January 2016 the first arrests were made - and included several sections , among them, an alleged diversion of funds for the payment of electoral campaigns of the Popular Party in the municipal elections of 2007 and in the general elections of the year 2008.

In this section, which was the one in which Medina was accused, the courtroom has acquitted all those accused of a crime of embezzlement of public funds: Benavent, Medina himself, the administrator of Thematica Events, Rafael García Barat, and the PP as subsidiary civil liability.

(((There will be expansion)))