After almost seven years of investigation, the oral hearing for the case of the Gran Alacant Clinic in Santa Pola begins on Monday in the City of Justice of Elche.
Amongst the 8 people standing trial are the former mayor of Santa Pola, Miguel Zaragoza from the PP, and former councillor and deputy Loreto Cascales, as well as the sister of the former mayor, Pilar Zaragoza and her partner, and also former councillor Jorge Perelló, among others.
They are accused of prevarication, bribery and prohibited negotiations for renting municipal offices to a private clinic in a municipal office in exchange for hiring relatives of PP militants. In some cases, like that of Pilar Zaragoza, they would have received salaries without going to work. Added to all this is that the clinic would not have paid the fee to the council for rent.
In addition to the former mayor, his sister and the two former councillors – Jorge Perello, who was responsible for Personnel and Loreto Cascales, mayor of Gran Alacant -, the then managers of the clinic Manuel Rodríguez Bernal and Fernando Gómez Soler; the former Sports Councillor Francisco Martín and Antonio Jesús Martínez. These last two, PP activists, had been hired at the clinic. In the investigation phase, the then owners of the clinic did admit that Pilar Zaragoza did not go to work for a year, despite the fact that she was paid in full, and that city council staff also provided their services at the clinic.
This is the second case that reaches oral trial of the five that the Udef of the National Police referred to the courts. For now, the uniform case will be resumed in October 2024 after it was delayed due to the recusal of two magistrates, which was rejected by the Court itself. On Monday, this second case will be judged.
The case of beach beacon contracts is still under investigation, which investigates the alleged splitting of plaza beacon contracts between 2007 and 2015; the case of the NGO Icnelia, and then there is the case of overtime payment in the Local Police.
