A Prison in Spain
More than two dozen Spanish politicians and business leaders face a total of 351 years in jail after a national court handed down sentences in the long-running “Operaction Guertel’’ corruption case on Thursday.
The case has been dragging on for years and has caught up multiple members of the ruling centre-right People’s Party (PP).
Thursday’s sentencing saw 29 of 37 accused given jail terms.
Named Operaction Guertel, the Spanish word for ‘operation’ and the German word for ‘belt’, the sting looked at Spanish businessmen who were bribing PP politicians in exchange for lucrative public contracts.
The case first came to light in 2009.
The affair is considered to be one of the biggest in modern Spanish history.
Much of it is focused on a businessman, Francisco Correa (whose surname roughly translates as ‘belt’), who stands accused of embezzling large sums of public money between 1999 and 2005.
The 62-year-old was sentenced to 51 years in jail.
Former PP Treasurer, Luis Barcenas, was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to 33 years and a fine of 44 million Euros (51.6 million dollars).
The network’s activities focused on Madrid and Valencia, which are both PP strongholds.
PP leader and Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, also took the stand during the trial but said he never profited from the illegal financing.
