THEY SEEK HIM HERE...And no I’m not Karina Pau’s father

Great excitement in Jimena de la Frontera on Thursday morning. Just 30 minutes before this photograph of the popular Cuenca bar was taken the former mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz, was sitting outside sipping coffee. Within minutes a TV crew from Antena Tres had descended on Jimena trying to catch a sighting of Muñoz with his girlfriend Karina Pau who lives in the municipality and interview them.

Suddenly Muñoz disappeared, where to only he and Karina knows. Karina’s parents are Gibraltarian and recently Muñoz applied to the court to be allowed to visit them on the Rock on a monthly basis. Not surprisingly as Muñoz is currently in the dock in Málaga in the Malaya corruption trial – the largest of its kind in Spanish history - the judge refused to let him leave Spain.

Muñoz is alleged to have received 162,000 euros from the Malaya mastermind, Juan Antonio Roca, who was Marbella’s director of town planning. However the former mayor is also standing trial on a case linked to Malaya. It involves the famous singer Isabel Pantoja, who was his one time lover plus his former wife Mayte Zaldívar.

The case revolves around the time Muñoz was mayor of Marbella and the anti-corruption prosecutor accuses him of having siphoned off over 3.5 million euros of municipal funds for his own use. First he used his then wife, Mayte Zaldívar, to help launder this cash and once she was dumped the task fell to his then lover, Isabel Pantoja. It is alleged that Pantoja utilised the money to acquire an apartment in the Guadalpín Hotel and her house in Marbella, Mi Gitana.

If found guilty Isabel Pantoja faces three and a half years in jail plus a fine of 3.68 million euros. Julián Muñoz could be sent away for seven and a half years and have to hand over 7.6 million euros. His ex-wife Mayte Zaldívar would be handed a three and a half year prison term and a fine of 2.6 million euros. They each have to pay this money in to court ahead of the trial.

Given the large number of court convictions that are staking up against him it is no surprise that Muñoz is taking time out to enjoy a coffee in convivial surrounds whilst he can. There was one surprise yesterday. As I took a photograph of the Antena Tres cameraman I realised he was filming me. I later heard from my fellow journalist in Jimena, Alberto Bullrich, that they had rushed up to him demanding to know – “was I Karina Pau’s father?” Well you know that I am not, but hush, and let me enjoy my 5 minutes of Spanish TV notoriety.

KEEN EYED PROSPERO & JULIÁN MUÑOZ

Yesterday was Wednesday so I met with my good friend Prospero for cud chewing in Jimena’s Bar Vecina.

Despite my many years my body is still a temple. By comparison Prospero is long of tooth but has a keener eye thanks to his bifocals. Hence whilst I chomped on my mollete con jamón y tomate he espied two men, one with a camera and another with a microphone.

By chance as we left the bar so did they. It was then that we noticed that the microphone was that of Antena Tres, one of Spain’s major TV stations. As they headed for Antonio’s Bar with Prospero in hot pursuit I went off to buy a bottle of sheep dip for the dogs – don’t ask!

In due course my phone rang – it was Prospero with the full story. Apparently they were on the hunt for the former mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz, who was rumoured to be on the prowl in our neck of Los Alcornocales national park.

Needless to say there is more to that side of the tale but I shall leave it to the ‘prensa rosa’ to bring it to you. ‘La prensa rosa’ is Spain’s answer to the News of the World and Sunday People except in also takes in magazines and various TV programmes on the major channels.

So who is Julián Muñoz? Well if you don’t already know let me explain.

Julián was a GIL councillor in Marbella when the corrupt Jesus Gil y Gil ruled that roost. When the fat man stood down he pushed Muñoz in to his place until he was disposed by Marisol Yagüe before soon after the corruption shit hit the judicial fan.

During his spell as mayor Julián started a public dalliance with the celebrated singer Isabel Pantoja. He then dumped his wife and set-up house with Pantoja in a property that yet may be revealed to have been acquired illegally.

Now Muñoz is a convicted criminal having been jailed for various town planning offences whilst a GIL councillor or mayor. I believe there are another 100 such cases in the pipeline although the prosecutor is desperate to do a deal so that the courts won’t be clogged up to kingdom come. He is currently a third level detainee, which allows him to spend most of his time out of jail and Julián has a job as the manager of a beach bar in San Pedro de Alcántara close to Marbella.

Early next year the court case surrounding the Malaya corruption scandal at Marbella town hall will start in Málaga at the Palacio de Justicia. This will be the largest such case in Spain’s history and many of the procedures installed in Madrid for the March 11 terrorism trial will be used in Málaga.

In the dock will be Juan Antonio Roca, the former director of town planning in Marbella, who is the alleged mastermind in the case involving hundreds of millions of euros, international money laundering, bribery, fraud –you name it. One of those in the dock with Roca will be Muñoz who if convicted will be washing dishes for many years to come in prison and not glad-handing the public on Marbella’s seafront.

Why is Muñoz’s presence in Jimena bad news for the small rural community? Well when Roca was arrested it was at one of his many houses – this one being in Jimena that as it turned out had been illegally built. So apart from the fact that Muñoz is a convicted felon he is a reminder of the times when certain people in power in Jimena flirted with the black money bags on the Costa del Sol and would have sold their souls (and our green and pleasant land) for a crock of fool’s gold.