Former Mayor of Monforte and Former Municipal Secretary Acquitted of Alleged Irregular Hiring

The 10th Section of the Alicante Provincial Court has issued Judgment 234/2024, acquitting former Mayor of Monforte del Cid, Antonia Cervera, and former municipal secretary, Santiago de Munck Loyola, of charges including perversion of justice, illegal appointment and acceptance of illegal appointment, embezzlement, and document falsification. The ruling is in their favour with all pronouncements and costs declared ex officio.

The Public Prosecutor had sought a prison sentence of three and a half years for each defendant for document falsification in conjunction with illegal appointment, along with various fines and disqualifications for two counts of illegal appointment and one of perversion of justice.

The complaint against the defendants was filed in February 2018 by the Monforte del Cid Town Council after the governing coalition of IU, PSOE, and Ciudadanos decided to dismiss Munck as municipal secretary. Nearly seven years have passed since the complaint was filed, during which the municipal secretary "has not received his salary, any public benefits, and was unlawfully deregistered from Social Security, subjecting him to relentless bullying compared to other municipal employees," according to the Regionalist Party, presided over by Santiago de Munck.

Santiago De Munk's lawyer was criminal lawyer José Mª Bueno Manzanares. Following the ruling, Santiago de Munck announced that he "will take action against the former mayor, those who maliciously assisted in filing the complaint, and the Monforte del Cid Town Council, seeking compensation for moral damages suffered and to be reinstated to his position as a civil servant, from which he was unlawfully removed nearly seven years ago."