The Court of First Instance and Instruction number 5 of Estepona has opened preliminary proceedings for an alleged crime of sexual harassment after the complaint by an official of the town council of the town of Malaga against its mayor, José María García Urbano. At the moment, the only step requested by the investigating judge of the case is the taking of the complainant’s statement, which will be carried out in the coming days, according to sources from the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA). The council has issued a statement in which they assure that the councilor is “a victim of a false complaint.”

The complaint was filed on October 22 at the deanery of the municipal courts, according to legal sources. Later, it was sent to court, as confirmed by the TSJA, and was finally admitted for processing this Monday. In it, an official denounces several events that occurred between 2022 and 2023 when, according to the complaint, his sexual freedom was violated. Now, the judge has decided to initiate preliminary proceedings and will take a statement from the complainant. “Then, based on the evidence of crime that can be collected, the next steps to be taken will be decided,” the same sources stressed. That is, if it is decided to continue with the investigation or, on the contrary, the case is closed.

García Urbano, mayor of Estepona since 2011has placed the case in the hands of a team of lawyers “who are going to appear in the procedure in order to request that they proceed to hear him, voluntarily and as soon as possible, to reveal the absolute lack of foundation of said complaint.” “, according to municipal sources. “It is an inadmissible and unfair campaign to damage the personal dignity and career of the mayor and the position he holds with a single and clear spurious purpose,” the city council insisted in a statement.