# Courts drop one charge against former San Fulgencio Councillor

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 Courts drop one charge against former San Fulgencio Councillor
 The court in Orihuela has dropped and archived one of the two cases brought against former San Fulgencio Councillor Manuel Barrera. Señor Barrera sprang to prominence four years ago when he was shown in a video allegedly accepting money as a bribe. Shortly after that a further charge was made against him relating to money collected from the local summer party Fiesta. The video was leaked to the press and widely circulated on television and later the Internet as well. As a result, officers from the anti corruption squad arrested not only Manuel Barrera but most of the senior members of the Town Hall as well. All were subsequently released except Senor Barrera. It was to mark the end of a power-sharing agreement between PSOE, APSFU and Manuel Barrera's AIM party, a party new to the political scene which had been set up specifically for the purpose of better representing residents on the urbanisations and improving and developing the facilities available to them. AIM had won enough of the popular vote to have three councillors and hold the balance of power in the Town Hall. After the arrest of most of the councillors Mark Lewis an English AIM councillor found himself in charge at least temporarily.
 
 A short time after his arrest in relation to the contents of the video Manuel Barrera found himself facing a further denuncia, this time relating to money that was collected following the summer Fiesta but supposedly not passed on to the appropriate department in the town Hall. The total amount of the alleged embezzlement was over €11,000. The greater part of this has been accounted for and it is this case that the judge in the court in Orihuela has dismissed. There is still though about €4,000 of that money not accounted for and Manuel Barrera asks why has this not been pursued?
 
 That leaves the charge of accepting a bribe still to be finalised. Speaking to the Coast Rider last week Manuel Barrera repeated his accusations that the video incident in which he appeared and the events surrounding it had been deliberately constructed in order to destroy his reputation and finish the influence of the AIM party in the San Fulgencio Town Hall. The ex-councillor was videoed in a sting operation carried out in Valencia involving private detectives pretending to be businessmen interested in investing in projects in San Fulgencio and, according to what Manuel Barrera told us, the AIM party as well which is why they gave him the €5,000, supposedly the first monthly payment of many to help finance his political party.