In 2003, Julián Muñoz defined himself as “a Catholic, hard-working and sentimental Spaniard, a person of the people with old values that my elders instilled in me: loyalty, respect for my principles, honor and honour.” At that time, he rose to fame for his relationship with the singer Isabel Pantoja and had recently been appointed Mayor of Marbella following the resignation of Jesús Gil following his involvement in the so-called ‘T-shirts case’.
Neither his turbulent romance with the singer worked out, nor was his political career managed in the best way. The former politician ended up with a broken heart and in prison for the ‘Malaya case’one of the most important real estate and institutional corruption schemes uncovered in Spain.
A love triangle
But before their problems with justice, the love triangle between Julian Munoz, Maite Zaldivar and Isabel Pantoja He made the front pages of the gossip press in the first decade of the 2000s. Muñoz had been married to Zaldívar since 1974 – with whom he had two daughters, one biological and one adopted – when he met the singer and fell in love with her at Fitur 2003. The former mayor of Marbella ended up being unfaithful to his wife, after almost 30 years of marriage, with the artist, who was widowed in 1984 by the bullfighter Paquirri.
The couple’s first encounters arose in total secrecyin the apartment that the singer had in Guadalpín, and later in Cantora, a property from which Muñoz left in the trunk to avoid journalists.I felt like the most important guy in the world“I had managed to get such an impressive character as Isabel Pantoja to notice me, I was the fucking boss,” Muñoz confessed in his Telecinco docuseries.
The rumors were quick to reach the media, but it was not until the pilgrimage of El Rocío of 2003 that decided confirm their relationship with their kissShortly afterwards they also walked around the Marbella Fair and other public events organised by the Town Hall. Muñoz ended up divorcing Zaldívar, although later they would be involved together in the corruption plot.
His love with the singer was idyllic, like something out of a movie, until the legal proceedings complicated their relationship. In 2009, the singer confirmed in the magazine ‘¡HOLA!’ the end of her relationship with the former politician.My relationship with Julian has ended. It was a very painful decision.“, he stated on the cover. Years later, Muñoz himself confessed that he felt ashamed of this infidelity to his wife. After his separation from the singer, between 2009 and 2016, Muñoz had a relationship with Karina Pau.
Mayor of Marbella and the ‘Malaya case’
Between love scandals, Julián Muñoz was involved in politics. He entered as councillor in Marbella in 1991 with the help of Jesús Gil and ended up as mayor of the city after the resignation of the former president of Atlético de Madrid due to the ‘T-shirts caseIn 2002, Muñoz won an absolute majority for the Independent Liberal Group (GIL), revalidating his position in the municipal elections of 2003. However, in June of that same year his salary was seized and two months later Muñoz lost the mayor’s office after a motion of censure.
Before the famous ‘Malaya case’, Muñoz had been involved in other cases of urban irregularities such as the ‘Proinsa case‘ and the ‘Banana Beach case‘. For the first, the prosecutor requested 18 months in prison and eight months of disqualification against him for a building permit in 1999, when he was chairing the Government Commission that authorized it. For the second, he was sentenced to six months in prison and eight years of disqualification from public employment and office for an urban planning offense.
The investigation into Julián Muñoz and his entourage began when Zaldívar stated on a television programme that her ex-husband He brought home garbage bags full of moneyMuñoz was arrested on July 19, 2006 in the third phase of the ‘Malaya case’ and was imprisoned for alleged bribery, embezzlement of public funds and urban planning malfeasance related to the granting of illegal licenses during the municipal governments of the GIL. Two and a half years later, Muñoz was released, but was sentenced again in 2013 to seven and a half years in prison and 10 years of disqualification from public office.
His two wives were also implicated in the investigation that would determine whether they were front men to launder the money that Muñoz had been diverting from the town hall. In the accounts of Pantoja and his companies, anomalous deposits of almost 600,000 euros appeared. Another suspicious real estate transaction was the purchase of an apartment for more than 300,000 euros at number 105 of the Hotel Guadalpín. Pantoja ended up being sentenced to two years in prison. Originally, the former politician had been sentenced to 20 years in prison, although he ultimately served only five years and two months of the total due to their health status.
Diseases
In the last two years in prison, Muñoz was forced to visit the hospital 29 times for a ischemic-hypertensive heart diseaseattached to a type 1 diabetes mellitus and a large number of conditions, including one arteriopathyThe prison’s own deputy medical director reported that Muñoz’s medium-term risk of death was over 50% despite continued medical care.
On May 6, 2016, he finally left prison and went on to serve his third year in the Social Insertion Center of Algeciras, where he spent five years. In 2021, the Penitentiary Surveillance Court of the National Court granted him conditional release for suffering “a serious and incurable multi-pathology, to which is added the ophthalmic condition that he now suffers from and which is also incurable.”
