PALMA
THE former head of planning in Palma Council, Javier Rodrigo de Santos - who was yesterday remanded in custody - is facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for alleged sexual abuse of minors.
Judge Antonio Rotger ruled that de Santos should be remanded without bail as requested by the prosecutor, Concha Gomez.
The former head of planning's solicitor, Bartolome Vidal, told the press that de Santos declared himself totally innocent of the charges after being questioned by the prosecutor and the judge about supposed sexual abuse of minors.
The lawyer did not say how many minors were alleged to be involved in the case.
However, he did reveal that the former head of planning has acknowledged that he had met some of them.
De Santos was yesterday driven from the National Police headquarters in Palma to the prison, where he will remain in custody for a maximum of two years until the case is put together.
De Santos' solicitor said he did not know the details of the ages of the minors involved, because the judge had ruled that the charges should not be made public.
Vidal said that this made it practically impossible to have an opinion or make any kind of judgement about the case.
He said that people would have to wait until the judge lifted the order of secrecy on the charges.
It took Judge Rotger 45 minutes in Palma's Court No. 8 to make a decision on de Santos' immediate future yesterday.
De Santos arrived at the courts in the Via Alemania handcuffed .
He spent two hours in a cell in the building between 9am and 11.15am until he was brought before the court for questioning.
At noon, he was brought back to his cell while the judge deliberated.
At 1pm, after the judge made his decision known, de Santos was driven in a National Police car to prison.
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