former mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz,has asked the courts to allow him to visit Gibraltar on a weekly basis.

10:45 El NACHO 0 Comments

former mayor of Marbella, Julián Muñoz, who is one of those implicated in the Malaga corruption case at the town hall and with numerous town planning convictions against him, has asked the courts to allow him to visit Gibraltar on a weekly basis.

Muñoz was involved with a chiringuito beach bar in San Pedro de Alcántara but that closed seven months ago and the former mayor is now on the dole. He has appealed to the courts for the return of his bail money and the lifting of the embargoes on his assets but that is unlikely to happen.

So Muñoz is insolvent, has no job but had planned to holiday overseas. He wants to visit the Czech capital, Prague, just for four days but that will only happen if the court allows it.

Muñoz has already spent time in jail for town planning offences, will be in the dock in the Malaya case – Spain’s largest corruption investigation - when it starts this autumn and also has a separate money laundering trial along with his ex-wife Maite Zaldivar and his former lover, the famous singer Isabel Pantoja.

Hence he needs the court’s permission to leave Spain and hopes to travel to Prague between September 9 and 12 “for holidays”. He has also made another plea to the judge to leave the country – although in this instance it means just an hour’s drive from Marbella to Gibraltar.

Love is the motive as Muñoz wants the court to authorize his visits to the family of his current partner, Karina Pau, who are Gibraltarian. To do so he needs his passport returned and the judge’s agreement so that he can cross the border.

This is not a one-off request. In his submission to the court the former mayor has not requested a single visit to Gibraltar but to be allowed to go once a week so that he can be with Karina Pau’s family.

The relationship with Pau has hardly been conducted in secret since the media descended on Jimena de la Frontera last November seeking out the couple in the village or at her home. This summer they were photographed at the Polo tournaments in Sotogrande and there have even been shots of Muñoz sunbathing on a yacht.

Which begs the question how does he pay for all this plus these visits given that he has no cash unless the court gives him his 50,000 euros bail money back? Of course he might not be paying for his travel to Gibraltar any more than he is to Prague.

Gibraltar has no say in whether Muñoz visits the Rock or not. Whilst there is no reason to believe that the former mayor wishes to visit Gibraltar other than to see Karina Pau’s parents, this high profile figure wandering along Main Street is hardly one that fits Gibraltar’s image as a whiter than white offshore location.