Jaume Matas says he will appeal to the Supreme Court

 

It follows the ex PP President of the Baleares being found guilty of fraud, document falsification, perversion of the course of justice and influence pedding, and the handing down of a six year prison sentence.Jaume Matas The ex Partido Popular President of the Baleares, Jaume Matas, who has been handed down a six year prison sentence for corruption, says that he will appeal the sentence because ‘it’s based on presumptions and not on evidence’. His lawyer said that Matas is ‘surprised’ by the court’s decision given that he was expected to found not guilty or a much lower sentence. His lawyer said that it was clear in the sentence that his client ‘not taken a penny of public money’. The judge in the case however considered the way that the journalist Antonio Alemany was contracted was ‘arbitrary’, and that an authentic disguise had been revealed, under which was the approval for the costs of services which it was known would never actually take place. Matas was found to be guilty of fraud, document falsification, perversion of the course of justice and influence peddling. Matas, who was also handed a nine year six month ban from public office, was also told today that the PP’s President of Valencia, Alberto Fabra, is to remove his title of ‘Ambassador for Valencia’. It’s an honour that Francisco Camps refused to remove when he was President of the region. Once he is informed about any appeal, the Prosecutors’ Office can ask for the provisional admission to prison for Matas. A statement from Alfonso Alonso for the Partido Popular regarding the sentence said that the party would be ‘belligerent’ against ‘irregular conducts’ and they respected the sentence. He underlined that Jaume Matas had not been a party militant since 2010 when he left the party, but the matter remains embarrassing for the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy has been a good friend to Matas describing him as ‘a serious president’. In 2004 Rajoy went as far as to say, ‘We are going to try to do in Spain what Jaume and his team have done on the Baleares’. The two men have also spent the summer break together on occasions. The PSOE party has asked for explanations from the Prime Minister, while IU has said it was good news. On Wednesday the Prosecutors’ Office has declined to ask for Matas to be sent to prison, seeing no danger of flight.