Blackmail and scandal: former police chief on trial in SpainFormer police commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, in June 2017, at the entrance of the Plaza de Castilla (Madrid) courts. MADRID: Notorious former police chief Jose Manuel Villarejo, whose revelations have shaken Spain's political and business elite to the core, goes on trial this week for blackmail and corruption. The trial, which will be held in San Fernando de Henares, near Madrid, at the Audiencia Nacional, Spain's top criminal court, is expected to continue until January. "This first trial will be important for establishing the credibility of the Spanish judicial system," said Manuel Bravo Perez, who co-wrote a book on the Villarejo case. But the ex-police chief will attend the trial as a free man since the court lifted his pre-trial detention in March, after serving three years behind bars at a Madrid prison.
