PALMA
THE former Partido Popular President of the Balearics, Jaume Matas, has been summoned to appear before a Palma court at 10am, March 23, 2010 to answer questions about the allegedly corrupt construction of the Palma Arena velodrome during his government's legislature.
Matas, who moved to the United States shortly after losing the local elections two years ago, has publicly volunteered to help the judge investigating the Palma Arena case but yesterday, Judge Jose Castro, formally called the former President to appear before him.
At the heart of the investigation of the Palma Arena case is the alleged misappropriation of an estimated 62 million euros of public funds.
The initial budget for the Arena construction was 48 million euros but, by the time is was finally completed, the bill had run to around 100 million and the fraud squad are investigating what happened to the extra 62 million euros. Since Palma court number three officially opened court proceedings last September, a number of leading members of the PP and the local business community have been implicated in the alleged corruption case and Matas is not the only person to have been summoned yesterday. Judge Castro also intends to question Matas's' wife, two other family members and the President of the Gesa-Endesa power company in the Balearics, Bartomeu Reus.