Julián Muñoz had been serving out sentence in cash-for-votes scam at home on health grounds

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A former mayor of Marbella who was convicted in one of Spain’s biggest corruption cases but allowed home on health grounds has been sent back to prison after a video emerged of him dancing the flamenco in a bar at 5am.



In October 2013 Julián Muñoz was found guilty of fraud and perverting the course of justice in a cash-for-votes scam that saw about €670m paid in bribes from municipal funds in the mid-1990s. He received a 22-year-prison sentence.

Last year a judge ruled that Muñoz could serve the remainder of his sentence at home because of a life-limiting cardiovascular and respiratory condition, and the 69-year-old was issued with an electronic tag.

Six days ago, however, the news website El Español published footage of Muñoz dancing in a bar outside Marbella. By Monday he was back in prison in the city of Algeciras.

Muñoz’s lawyer said he would appeal against the move.

“No one’s told him why his liberty’s been taken away,” Antonio José García Cabrera told a press conference in Granada on Tuesday.



“You can’t act on the back of the gossipy media or impose a soap opera punishment – you need to explain the reasons and what breach Julián Muñoz has committed.”

García Cabrera said the decision was “unjust, disproportionate, motiveless and capricious” and appeared to have been made “probably because of a few simple images”.

He suggested the authorities were punishing Muñoz’s celebrity rather than the man himself.

Asked about his client’s health, García Cabrera said Muñoz’s return to prison had aggravated his condition and caused his blood pressure to rise.



Muñoz is a former boyfriend of the folk singer Isabel Pantoja, the widow of the bullfighter Francisco Rivera, who died in the ring in 1984.

