The judicial decision, which is subject to appeal, also declares null and void the agreement signed in July 2015, as well as the debt settlement records included in that document. The conviction prevents Fuentes from holding any public office or employment for the stipulated period.
The case originated in 2013, when TG7, Granada's municipal television, began providing extraordinary services to the City Council that exceeded what was agreed in the original 2011 contract. To settle the accumulated debt for these services, an agreement was signed in July 2015 establishing a sponsorship formula as a payment mechanism.
The court did not question the provision of services, but rather the manner in which the payment agreement was formalized. The chamber considers that the agreement was not a simple extension of the initial contract, but a substantial modification that altered the signatory parties and generated new financial obligations for the City Council.
Economic obligations were established for the City Council, by someone who lacked the authority to contract, outside the established procedure, and without expenditure oversight.
The sentence identifies three main irregularities: Fuentes' lack of authority to sign the agreement on behalf of the City Council, non-compliance with the Public Sector Contracts Law in the procedure, and the absence of budgetary allocation, prior legal report, and expenditure oversight by the Municipal Audit Office. These points were corroborated during the trial by the general secretary, the auditor, and the head of the City Council's Legal Advisory Office.
This case has had a long judicial journey. In November 2023, the Provincial Court of Granada had acquitted Fuentes. However, the Prosecutor's Office appealed the decision to the High Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA), which annulled the trial and ordered a new hearing with a different court. This second trial took place in February 2025.
During the process, the Prosecutor's Office had requested 15 years of disqualification and estimated the economic damage to municipal coffers at 864,121 euros. For his part, Fuentes' defense argued that the agreement was beneficial for the city by reducing the debt with the municipal television by approximately 300,000 euros, and that he did not participate in drafting the legal clauses of the document.
Nevertheless, the court has determined that responsibility for signing the agreement rests directly with the former councilor, regardless of internal processes prior to its signing. The special disqualification from public employment or office implies the effective loss of any position in the administration for the nine years of the sentence, without entailing a prison sentence.
