The Court filed the case against the FMC because their funds … – euronews

Reuters, 16/03 16:21 CET

From left. to r., the former deputy PSC, Daniel Fernández, the former mayor of Sabadell, Manuel Bustos, his brother Francisco and the Mayor of Montcada i Reixac, Maria Elena Perez, on the bench of the Superior Court of Catalonia (TSJC), the start of the trial by the Mercury case. EFE / File

Barcelona, ​​March 16 ( EFE ) .- The Court of Barcelona has agreed to file the case in which they were accused of embezzling more than forty mayors and former mayors of the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia, mostly socialists, considering that the funds received and managed by the FMC does not have a public character.

In a car, the third of the Court of Barcelona section gives reason to several of the accused mayors and orders free acquittal of all defendants in this case separate “Mercury” piece, which was investigating whether the mayors misused to share hidden bonuses and allowances, by funds from the FMC .

According to the order, the municipalities that are part of the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia ( FMC ) do so voluntarily, so the appearance that an entity is public does not correspond to its “legal reality” so that “the funds received and managed without the public nature “indispensable to attribute a crime of embezzlement requirement.

” It could question the reasoning which led to each municipality to join the FMC (or other association of similar characteristics) and, therefore, could implicates spending this integration supposes, because the share that accrues to do is unmistakably part of public funds managed by the city, “says the court.

However, the self concludes that “from the moment that the FMC has entered the fee paid by each municipality to form an entity, money has lost the consideration of public flow, which implies that what is done with them is no longer any incardinable offense “to offenses against the administration.

In his writing Hearing disassembled theory of the prosecution and the judge “Mercurio case” which rejected the request Free dismissal raised by some mayors charged to stress the thesis that money available to the FMC is public because it comes from the municipalities within it.

The court rejects this argument, holding that the FMC is not an entity that manages public services, but an association under the legal regime of the Associations Act, which has a private nature.

The Court wields including Article 45 of the statutes of the FMC , which states that in case of dissolution, assets not revert to local authorities, but would be available to any similar association or charity-cultural character.

Among the defendants in this part of the now archived “Mercurio case” include the president of the FMC and former mayor of Sabadell (Barcelona) Manuel Bustos, as well as the mayor of L ‘Hospitalet (Barcelona), Núria Marín; the Mataró (Barcelona), Joan Mora, El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona), Lluís Tejedor; the Solsona (Lleida), David Rodriguez, and Tarragona, Josep Felix Ballesteros, among others.

According to reported judicial sources, the decision of the High Court, which today is being notified one one to all mayors involved, the practice also involves the filing of the case opened by the gift watches to members of the dome of the municipalist entity in 2011, which is investigated in a separate “Mercurio case” piece ( the 25a A) linked directly to the bonuses (the 25a).

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