Corruption
Rafael Gómez wept as he related his humble beginnings as a goatherd in his defence against corruption charges
21.01.12 - 14:53 -
The 95 defendants in the Malaya case come from all walks of life: former councillors, business owners, computer technicians, vets... But none has a professional history quite as colourful as that of Cordoba builder Rafael Gómez, who faces 18 years in prison and a 1.2 million euro fine for bribery.
Popularly known as ‘Sandokán’ (he looks like the actor who starred in the TV series of the same name), on Wednesday he told the court all about his past as a goatherd, turkey keeper, chicken plucker and several more professions before he became a successful builder. Gómez’s testimony was one of the most surprising in the more than 100 court sessions held so far, as the defendant burst into tears on a couple of occasions and the judge even had to stop proceedings for a few moments. Not long after that Gómez had the courtroom in laughter as he told a series of anecdotes about his life.
All this was in order to prove how he was a “humble” and “honest” worker who had never “tried to do any harm”, in an attempt to distance himself from the corruption case.
The businessman, who is also an opposition councillor in Cordoba City Hall with his own independent party, spoke of his military service, his wedding and other events in his personal history. “After I was arrested, a bank insisted I paid back a debt of 317 million euros. I told him: ‘Jesus Christ is up there, and part of that Jesus Christ is me, so don’t worry, I will pay you back down to the last peseta’. And that’s what I did”, he said.
When the judge and the public prosecutor did manage to get the questioning back on track, the builder denied having paid any money in cash to Juan Antonio Roca. However in Roca’s private accounts there were two amounts of 300,000 euros attributed to ‘Sandokán’, which are thought to have been bribes in exchange for licences for business premises. Rafael Gómez admitted he did negotiate deals with Roca but he only ever gave money to Marbella Town Hall.
“It is the Malaya case that has destroyed this country”, said the businessman at one stage, referring to the thousands of jobs generated by the construction industry. “I fell in love with this profession (construction), because it is the only one capable of taking a business owner to infinity, and not just financially”, he concluded.
Olivo
Also on Wednesday the owner of La Cañada commercial centre, Tomás Olivo, denied paying Roca. He too spoke out in favour of his profession. “We developers are not corrupt. The administration is there because we pay our taxes and apply for licences to do our work”, he said, adding that Roca’s irregularities had damaged many Marbella business owners.
