Gil receives jail sentence
Friday, February 14, 2003
Article summary
Club Atlético de Madrid president Jesús Gil faces three-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of fraud.
Article body
Hand over shares
The Spanish Criminal Court (Sala de lo Penal de la Audiencia Nacional) also ordered Gil to hand over the 267,000 shares he owns in the club, thus relinquishing his 95 per cent controlling interest in Atlético in the short term at least.
Right to appeal
However, Gil will not have to serve the sentence while he still has the right to appeal, something his legal team must do within the next five days.
Gil's son sentenced
The court sentence relates to an investigation into Atlético's transformation into a public limited company. In the same case, Gil's son, Miguel Ángel, was sentenced to 18 months in jail while club director Enrique Cerezo was handed a one-year prison term.
Seperate case
This is not the first time in his 16-year reign as president of the Madrid club that Gil has faced legal difficulties. In a separate case last year, he was jailed only to be subsequently freed on bail of €700,000 pending a criminal investigation into the alleged misappropriation of public funds.
Falsifying documents
Gil was mayor of Marbella at the time and was jailed along with six co-defendants after being accused of tapping into €27m in municipal funds and of falsifying a number of documents.
