Virtually all Spanish parties to appeal against sentence in Noos corruption trial

Virtually all of the parties involved in the Noos Corruption trial will appeal against the sentences which were handed out on Feb. 17th, the Spanish press reported on Friday.

The deadline to appeal the sentences in the long running corruption scandal, which has captured headlines in Spain for over a year, expired at 3 pm on Friday.

The Noos trial saw the sister of King Felipe VI of Spain, the Infanta Cristina de Borbon, sit among the accused and her husband Inaki Urgangarin was sentenced to six years and three months for various offences related to the siphoning off of public funds, by the supposedly non-profit making Noos Institute.

The sentences caused controversy when announced in Spain with many commentators surprised by their lack of severity after a trial in which only 7 of the 18 accused were found guilty and only three of those (Urdangarin, his partner Diego Torres and former President of the Balearic Islands, Jaume Matas) were punished.

Spain's Anti-Corruption Prosecution service and the lawyers for the Balearic Islands will appeal in order to ask for tougher sentences, while the Balearic Island government wants to try and recover the money defrauded by the Noos Institute, a supposedly non-profit organization run by Urdangarin and Torres.

Urdangarin, Torres and Mata, meanwhile, will appeal against the length of the sentences, which were 6 years and three months for Urdangarin, 8 years and 6 months for Torres, and 3 years and 8 months for Matas, while Urdangarin was also fined 512,553 euros (around 560,000 U.S. dollars.

Finally the right wing union 'Manos Limpias' which presented a private prosecution against Infanta Cristiana will also appeal against the decision to make them pay costs after the Infanta was found not guilty of money laundering, although she was ordered to pay 265,099 euros (283,728 dollars) after being found to have benefitted from the fraud. Endit