ISSUE 651 • 7th -13th September 2018 By Helen Muir THE former mayor of Albox Rogelio Mena, accused of spending more than €2,000 of public money on trips and private meals, must wait until October to learn his fate, when an oral hearing will be held. In 2016, Mena left office to start two and a half years of disqualification after being convicted of denying information to the opposition. In this second case he is being prosecuted for alleged crimes of prevarication and continued misappropriation of public funds. Mena has announced he is going to request the liquidation of his sentence claiming the legal deadline has elapsed. Meanwhile, his predecessor, socialist Jose Garcia
EST 2005
Mayors in court
AWAITING JUSTICE: Mena (inset) is yet to learn his fate.
Religion teacher redeemed A SPANISH religion teacher has returned to her job which she lost in 2001 after the Catholic Church refused to renew her contract when she married a divorced man. Resurreccion Galera took up her post on Monday at a school in Llanos de la Cañada, in Almeria Province, two years after the Supreme Court ruled that she had a right to be reinstated. In its decision, the court stated
that her dismissal ‘violated human rights.’ Judges ruled that her marriage bore no relation to her work as a religion teacher, despite the fact that she was deviating from the values of the Roman Catholic Church, which controls recruitment of religion teachers in state schools. At the time Mrs Galera lost her job, she had been teaching
Catholic religion for seven years at Ferrer Guardia Elementar y school. She had married a German devorcée, Johannes Romes, in a civil ceremony. The Diocese of Almeria had appealed twice to the Constitutional cour t in its bid to prevent Mrs Galera’s return, but in a statement on Monday it said it respected the decision.
Navarro, has received a 10-year disqualification from employment within the public office for showing favouritism within his duties in the town hall. He faces 10 years of disqualification from employment within the public office.
It has been reported he could also receive 12 years of imprisonment in another procedure where he is accused of malpractice while awarding contracts for €1.1 million, a crime of administrative prevarication. It is claimed he signed 12 work contracts on behalf of the City Council ‘without following any procedure and without justifying the causes.’ Navarro resigned for ‘personal reasons’ in 2013.