The Pardon Game

At the end of September, the journalist Antonio Alemany presented a plea for a pardon to be considered. He was seeking this pardon as a way of avoiding serving a prison sentence of two years and three months that was handed down at the end of a trial which also involved former president of the Balearics, Jaume Matas, and which resulted in Alemany having been found guilty of having received irregular payments, made from public funds, for speeches and articles he had written for and about Matas. The pardon plea was presented to the "Audiencia" in Palma, the court which had heard the case. As his sentence was for less than three years, the court had to accept that Alemany's entrance into prison would be suspended, pending the processing of the pardon plea.

Three weeks later, the court had to agree to his not entering prison because there was a possibility that he could serve his sentence but then receive the pardon. The fact that this was a possibility serves to highlight quite how slowly the judicial process can move. The court, in acceding to the plea, laid down certain conditions. One was that Alemany would have to report to police once a month, another was that, if the pardon process had not been resolved by May 2018, the case would go back to court in order to establish whether or not Alemany should indeed enter prison. By May 2018. Over four and a half years later.

It is not for the court to decide on the pardon plea. Its processing is undertaken by the national Ministry of Justice. It gathers all the information relevant to the case and this is then given to the Cabinet (of Mariano Rajoy) to make a decision. There is a minimum period that this processing requires. Approximately one year. As far as there being a maximum period, perhaps May 2018 gives an indication as to how long this might be.

Alemany is not the only defendant to have been found guilty to seek a pardon from the Prime Minister. A former colleague of Mariano Rajoy's in national government is also seeking one. Jaume Matas. He had initially been sentenced to six years for the same case as that involving Alemany. The sentence was reduced to nine months.

There is something of a convention that sentences for first offences of under two years mean that a spell in prison is avoided. Where Matas was concerned, it had looked as though this would be the case, but the court has insisted otherwise. Once it seemed as if he would have to enter prison, the pardon was sought.

In July, the former president of the Council of Mallorca, Maria Antònia Munar, went to prison to serve a sentence of five and a half years. In October, her lawyer, responding to confirmation of the sentence by the Balearics High Court, indicated that he might seek either a "recurso de amparo" or a partial pardon for his client. The "amparo", which would, in this instance, be granted by the Constitutional Court, is a legal remedy akin to habeas corpus. The word means protection, and its purpose is to protect citizens and to guarantee that basic rights are not being violated.

It would be unlikely that the Constitutional Court would uphold the amparo plea, as to do so it would need to establish that a fundamental right had been breached. Munar continues to argue her innocence, but her sentence has been upheld and she indeed faces, like Matas, other possible sentencing. Were a pardon to be considered, this wouldn't mean that she could leave prison. Once there, she stays there until or if it is decided she has been there long enough (less than the five and a half years in all likelihood). 

It has emerged that, prior to going into prison, Munar sought the help of three leading politicians with the PSOE party. They were the leader of PSOE and former national Interior Minister, Alfredo Rubalcaba, the former president of the Balearics, Francesc Antich, and the one-time director-general of the National Police and Guardia Civil, Joan Mesquida. Help was also sought from a fourth person, the Balearics chief prosecutor. In a letter to Rubalcaba, she pleads with him to intercede on her behalf.

These requests for help amount to requests for influence to be used. As such, they go to the heart of what lies behind corruption - the wielding of influence and the use or abuse of position and power. Are requests for pardons, directed in Matas's case at a former government colleague, not in a sense similar? To be met, they require those in power to not just wield influence but to make the decision.

What justifications are there for pardons? If convictions are wrong, then there are plenty. Have these convictions been, as Munar alludes to in her letters, the result of political persecution? If the convictions are right, then there are surely no justifications.

The Power Of Love: Jaume Matas

From the start of his second presidency until anti-corruption investigations began to unravel his world, six years had passed in the life of Jaume Matas. For each one of these years, he has now been condemned to serve the equivalent in prison. Possibly. At present, he remains at liberty. His sentence is to be appealed, the Supreme Court will be invited to ratify (or not) the decision of a Palma court, though there is still the small matter of numerous other trials that await Matas.

We now no longer have to pussyfoot. Or do we? Matas' lawyer argues that the higher court has often overturned decisions by lower courts, indeed he appears confident that the Supreme Court will overturn the sentence against Matas. In his view, Matas remains innocent. Can we dispense with the pussyfooting, or do we still have to resort to the "allegedly" caveat?

The essence of the first trial as part of the "caso Palma Arena" and of the guilty verdicts delivered against Matas, journalist Antonio Alemany, ex-director of government communication Joan Martorell and head of the Nimbus PR agency Miguel Romero was that Alemany received payments well in excess of what he was entitled to in writing speeches and glowing articles about Matas and his government and that Alemany's businesses, a news agency and an online newspaper, benefited from government funds.

Matas' offence, put in basic terms, was that he bought favours, while Alemany, condemned by the prosecution as being "fiercely independent except when it came to money and power", was happy to be the one being bought.

On the face of it, this has been an open-and-shut case of corruption in public office, but for journalists with the Spanish media reporting the case and now analysing its verdicts, there has to be a slight nag in the back of their minds. What Matas and the others did was to set up an arrangement that was not out in the open, unlike the system of government funds that have been paid, quite legitimately, to newspaper publishers. Alemany's online newspaper has made a point of itemising the payment of these funds. Alemany's independence was bought, but how truly can the Spanish press locally be said to be totally independent when it has been a government beneficiary?

Why, though, would Matas have gone to the lengths that he apparently did in order to obtain favourable press coverage? I'm not sure that this question has been adequately answered or even discussed. A hint as to the answer may lie with what has emerged of Matas, a man depicted as vain and a power freak who dominated his government. It is, without getting too deep into the psychology of someone known only through press reporting, a not untypical extension of a combination of vanity and power to also seek to be "loved". One way of doing so is to buy the right reporting. Another way is to buy something that will guarantee the love. Robert Maxwell was an example. When I once asked an executive at one of Maxwell's companies why he wanted to buy Manchester United, the answer was simple. He wanted to be loved by the fans.

It is still difficult, though, to really understand. Alemany wrote for a newspaper not exactly ill-disposed to the Partido Popular ("El Mundo") in any event. One has to presume that the arrangement with Alemany was one of guaranteeing that that fierce independence didn't suddenly include criticism. But it was also a case of power going to the head, of believing that anything could be done with impunity, including abuse of public office in blatantly manipulating the media (rather than the more subtle or less overt ways by which the press is influenced). In Matas and Alemany, from their performances and demeanour as reported and depicted in court (including the pre-trial declarations that Matas made), here were two people who appeared to mock the court, who gave the impression of being superior.

Ultimately, as the prosecution has put it, everything comes back to power and to money. And now that the court, notwithstanding the appeal and reference to the Supreme Court, has had its say, a "cascade" of repentance is expected from various of the accused in other parts of the Palma Arena case. The game is up, they might believe, and will have noted that neither Martorell nor Romero, who confessed, will actually go to jail. What more, though, awaits Jaume Matas? And what also now awaits the Duke of Palma, for whom the verdict, it is being said, has made his part in the whole affair that much more "complicated"?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Ten

The evidence, summings-up by defence and prosecution and last words by defendants have come to a conclusion in that part of the caso Palma Arena trial to do with payments that were allegedly made in an irregular fashion to the journalist Antonio Alemany. Jaume Matas' defence lawyer argued that there was an absence of proof and that the prosecution had relied on suspicions and prejudice. Matas declined to make a final statement, as he is entitled to. Alemany did have his word though, accusing the prosecution of insults and making what may well be seen as an important remark regarding the case being unique in the history of grants to the press in Spain. (If nothing else, the case highlights a wholly unsatisfactory system of public money that is given to the press - my comment, not Alemany's.)

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Nine

In the prosecutors' summing-up in the part of the trial to do with the payments to journalist Antonio Alemany, Pedro Horrach expressed his "indignation" at the premeditated nature of the use of public finds made by former president Jaume Matas. He praised Matas as a good accountant (which he originally was) and Alemany as a good journalist but damned their manipulation of public funds and power.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Eight

In court yesterday, the prosecutors confirmed that they would be calling for a sentence of eight and a half years for former president Jaume Matas in respect of the charges to do with payments to journalist Antonio Alemany. The prosecutors increased their demand to seven years where Alemany was concerned. This first part of the caso Palma Arena trial is now coming to a climax with summings-up being made this week.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Seven

Yesterday in court ... Things were still focussing on the journalist Antonio Alemany and payments to his Agencia Balear de Noticias, evidence from the Hacienda establishing that apart from public bodies the only client that the agency had was Alemany's own website, Libertad Balear, the implication again being that public money had gone to funding this enterprise.

Meanwhile, the Balearic Government has, for the first time ever, actually called for an ex-president, i.e. Jaume Matas, to be sentenced to imprisonment.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Six

More on how funds from the Matas government were allegedly spent by the journalist Antonio Alemany yesterday at the trial. A car is supposed to have been purchased with public funds and it would seem that the grant which went towards founding Alemany's Agencia Balear de Noticias was used to also fund his own website, Libertad Balear. Indeed, the agency and the website seem to have been more or less one of the same.

Meanwhile, there is some pretty astonishing stuff coming out regarding allegations of how public money to the Duke of Palma's Instituto Nóos went on funding the lifestyle of the Duke and Princess Cristina. It is all getting worse for the couple and is increasingly damaging to the reputation of the Royal Family.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Five

The fifth day of the trial concentrated mainly on the affairs of the journalist Antonio Alemany. His nephew admitted that he was the figurehead in companies formed by Alemany as the journalist did not wish to "figure" in them. Also, it was revealed that Alemany's news service, Agencia Balear de Noticias, which was set up during the Matas period of administration, was funded almost solely with government money, a "maximum" grant of 450,000 euros having been awarded, one that was sanctioned by the head of communication in the government, Joan Martorell, who is also on trial along with Matas and Alemany.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Four

Evidence from the head of communication in the Antich PSOE government that succeeded that of Jaume Matas suggested yesterday that payments which had been made to the journalist Antonio Alemany for articles were ten times greater than would have been expected. In addition, she and the head of communication in the Matas administration indicated that work appeared not to have been done in return for payments.

In another aspect of the caso Palma Arena that now incorporates the activities of the Instituto Nóos, of which the Duke of Palma was once a director, evidence has been submitted that increasingly looks as though the Duke's wife, Princess Cristina, is becoming implicated. Payments were regularly made to the Duke and the Princess between 2006 and 2008 with invoices raised by the property company that they jointly owned.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Three

Former Balearics vice-president Rosa Estarás testified yesterday in the Matas trial and indicated that she believed the ex-president authorised the tendering process that led to payments being made to the journalist and Matas speechwriter Antonio Alemany. She asserted that she would not have asked the president about the matter, as it was one for him and not her. In other developments, a former partner in the PR company Nimbus (its boss Miguel Romero is one of the accused in the case Palma Arena trial), stated that Alemany was paid commissions through the agency for work performed for the government, while the ex-director-general of sport in the Matas government has entered into an agreement with the prosecutors by which he has implicated Matas for having manipulated tenders in respect of the building of the Palma Arena velodrome.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day Two

Highlights of the second day. Antonio Alemany, the journalist accused of receiving government money for work that he didn't do, denied the claim completely and seemed to spend much of the time having a ding-dong with the judge and smiling a great deal. Earlier than expected, Jaume Matas started his appearance and said that the tender process which led to the allegedly irregular contracting of Alemany was not something within his responsibility as president. Matas attributed the contracting to the director of communication Joan Martorell and the head of the PR company Nimbus Miguel Romero and indicated that he believed there was a pact between others of those accused in the trial with the prosecutors to incriminate him.


It is a rest day today. Back on court on Thursday when the star turn will be Rosa Estaras, Matas's one-time second-in-command and now an MEP.

MALLORCA TODAY - Matas Trial: Day One

Two of those accused along with former Balearics president Jaume Matas, the ex-director of government communication Joan Martorell and the boss of the Nimbus PR agency Miguel Romero have admitted culpability in respect of payments to the journalist Antonio Alemany that were designed to improve the image of the government but which are alleged to have been excessive and incompatible with Alemany both receiving grants from the government and also working for it. The prosecution claims that between them, Matas and Alemany diverted almost half a million euros as part of the arrangement. The admission by Romero and Martorell is a pact with the judge in return for lighter sentences.

While the two have sought to repent, the others accused, Matas, Alemany and two former cabinet chiefs in the Matas administration, Maria Umbert and Dulce Linares, maintain their innocence. Of the defendants, Martorell declared that he had orders from Matas to favour Alemany while Linares stated that she would not have consented to anything of the sort.

MALLORCA TODAY - Eight and a half years for Matas called for

The first of the cases against the former Balearics president Jaume Matas is coming to an end. The prosecution are calling for a a sentence of eight and a half years for allegedly fraudulent payments made from public funds to a journalist, Antonio Alemany, who was Matas's speech-writer. This case is just one element of the so-called Palma Arena corruption affair.