José Antonio González, a postman by profession and former PP councilor in Mijas, could have invented the character Manuel Redondo to file a complaint, but this had traits of plausibility, so that González, the person behind the character, cannot be the author of a crime. of false complaint. This is how the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) has settled the case Mailman, of which González has finally been acquitted after being convicted in the first instance.
The TSJA thus revokes the sentence handed down by the Provincial Court of Malaga, which a year ago had sentenced him to eight months in prison and a fine of 2,160 euros for reporting under a pseudonym a City Council contract, knowing that it was not irregular ( according to the Court), with the purpose of harming Ciudadanos, who at that time governed the municipality.
It is necessary that “the facts themselves” be false
The acquittal, issued by the TSJA after González’s appeal, is built on the notion of what a “false complaint” is. For there to be such a thing, and therefore a crime, it is necessary that “the facts themselves” are false, no matter how the complainant qualifies them, that they are a crime and that the complainant is “aware of the falsehood” that he accuses. Unlike those of the Court, the three judges of the Appeals Chamber of the TSJA believe that what Redondo (or González) said in his complaint cannot “be called false,” so that what González did through Redondo bringing the alleged irregularities in the contracting of a municipal trip to the Prosecutor’s Office was not a false complaint.
The ruling highlights indicative aspects that established the verisimilitude of the complaint. Thus, it is highlighted that the Mijas contracting technician had signed a report proposing to withdraw from the public tender to award the trip. Also, that the contract was awarded to a hotel of which serious hygiene and structural deficiencies had been noted. And it was signed when two of the three travel shifts had already been completed.
The Plenary remedied the lack of budget coverage by approving the extrajudicial recognition of the credit (something legal and very common in city councils). González knew this when he filed his complaint, but the TSJA points out that this does not correct the possible irregularities in the file, much less does it mean that González already knew that what he was reporting was not a crime. “The fact that the complaint did not add that the invoice was finally paid through its extrajudicial recognition (…) does not make the rest of what was narrated in it mendacious,” the magistrates clarify.
The TSJA admits that the complaint was presented with an “obvious spirit of criticism and even discredit towards the members of the municipal government team, including the Mayor.” However, it concludes that its “objective content” is not false.
It is “reasonable” to think that Redondo was González
All part of the contract for the elderly of Mijas (91,691 inhabitants) of a seven-day trip to the Algarve (Portugal) in February 2017. The council awarded the package to Halcón Viajes for 301,780 euros, at a rate of 261.80 euros per each of the 1,150 places it offered, despite the fact that the technician was opposed due to the deficiencies she had observed in the hotel. In September 2018, eight months before the elections and one year and four months after the events, someone filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged administrative malfeasance. It was signed by Manuel Redondo Gámez.
Manuel Redondo Gámez is the name that González or the Mijeño PP (as Ciudadanos always believed and the Provincial Court slipped) chose to file a complaint for the alleged irregularities in the contracting of the trip for seniors. One more in the years of relentless judicial war between the local groups of the PP and Ciudadanos, led at that time by two men who professed a fierce hatred for each other since they broke up their government coalition: Ángel Nozal (PP) and Juan Carlos Maldonado (Ciudadanos ), then mayor.
The scheme was triggered when the Civil Guard looked for him to ratify the complaint, and verified that there was no one in Spain who had that name. Manuel Redondo Gámez, retired, does not exist. Then the prosecutor filed the initial complaint, turned around and leveled his accusation against the alleged perpetrator of the deception.
Like the judges of the Provincial Court, those of the TSJA have no doubt that González was Redondo and the author of the complaint. “Its authorship is reasonably inferred from the evidence carried out,” they write. González was a municipal postman, and that made him an essential element to keep up to date with court notifications to a non-existent person. He left a trail of clues leading towards him.
The prosecutor’s complaint against González allowed Maldonado to be paraded through the courts, here as a witness and injured party. When the matter was decided, in November 2023, Maldonado had once again shown signs of his now legendary ability to choose the most convenient option to remain in power. After leaving Ciudadanos and being the only councilor of his new party, Por mi Pueblo, he changed sides again: three months after supporting the Ciudadanos-PSOE government, he supported the motion of censure of PP and Vox to become second deputy mayor of The corporation is now led by Ana Mata (PP).
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