Franco's grandson sentenced to jail for ramming police car
The eldest grandson of late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was sentenced to 30 months in jail Thursday for deliberately ramming a police car following a high-speed chase.
A court in Teruel in eastern Spain sentenced Francisco Franco Martinez-Bordiu, 63, to 18 months jail for aggravated assault and 12 more months for dangerous driving, a court spokeswoman told AFP.
He will also have to pay €1,500 ($1,800) to one agent who was injured and €2,720 to the Guardia Civil police force for their damaged vehicle.
According to a complaint lodged by a police officer involved in the car chase, Guardia Civil officers on April 30, 2012 spotted Martinez-Bordiu driving near Calamocha in the province of Teruel in the dark without any
lights.
When they signalled for him to stop, he instead picked up speed and jumped several stop signs before ramming a patrol car, running it off the road.
Condenado a 30 meses de cárcel Francis Franco por arrollar con un todoterreno a dos guardias civiles https://t.co/dQiENT0XeJ
— cope.es (@cope_es) February 8, 2018
Martinez-Bordiu, one of seven children by Franco's only daughter Maria del Carmen Franco Polo, who died in December, denied being in the vehicle that rammed the patrol car when he appeared in court in 2014.
His lawyer told reporters that on that day Martinez-Bordiu had loaned his car to a former Romanian employee who "probably" no longer lived in Spain.
It was the latest in a series of brushes with the law experienced by the heirs of Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from 1939 until his death in 1975.
Martinez-Bordiu, who published a book about his grandfather, was charged in 2009 with assaulting a railway employee at a train station in Zaragoza in northern Spain after he missed his train.
He was acquitted after the employee who accused him of striking her failed to show up at his trial.
His younger brother Jaime Martinez-Bordiu was given a one-year suspended sentence in 2009 for beating his then girlfriend at a hotel on the Costa del Sol.
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A court in Teruel in eastern Spain sentenced Francisco Franco Martinez-Bordiu, 63, to 18 months jail for aggravated assault and 12 more months for dangerous driving, a court spokeswoman told AFP.
He will also have to pay €1,500 ($1,800) to one agent who was injured and €2,720 to the Guardia Civil police force for their damaged vehicle.
According to a complaint lodged by a police officer involved in the car chase, Guardia Civil officers on April 30, 2012 spotted Martinez-Bordiu driving near Calamocha in the province of Teruel in the dark without any
lights.
When they signalled for him to stop, he instead picked up speed and jumped several stop signs before ramming a patrol car, running it off the road.
Condenado a 30 meses de cárcel Francis Franco por arrollar con un todoterreno a dos guardias civiles https://t.co/dQiENT0XeJ
— cope.es (@cope_es) February 8, 2018
Martinez-Bordiu, one of seven children by Franco's only daughter Maria del Carmen Franco Polo, who died in December, denied being in the vehicle that rammed the patrol car when he appeared in court in 2014.
His lawyer told reporters that on that day Martinez-Bordiu had loaned his car to a former Romanian employee who "probably" no longer lived in Spain.
It was the latest in a series of brushes with the law experienced by the heirs of Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from 1939 until his death in 1975.
Martinez-Bordiu, who published a book about his grandfather, was charged in 2009 with assaulting a railway employee at a train station in Zaragoza in northern Spain after he missed his train.
He was acquitted after the employee who accused him of striking her failed to show up at his trial.
His younger brother Jaime Martinez-Bordiu was given a one-year suspended sentence in 2009 for beating his then girlfriend at a hotel on the Costa del Sol.
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