MADRID, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two former leaders of Spain's regional government of Andalusia were found guilty and brought to account on Tuesday for their roles in a wide-ranging corruption case.
A court in Seville, the capital city of Andalusia, handed down the ruling on the case, which involved the misuse of around 680 million euros (753 million U.S. dollars) in government funds meant to help workers who had been laid off.
Jose Antonio Grinan, who was president of the regional government of Andalusia between 2009 and 2013, and from the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), was sentenced to a six-year jail term.
Meanwhile, Manuel Chaves, who held power in the region from 1990 to 2009 and served as Third Deputy Prime Minister of Spain between 2009 and July 2011, was barred from holding public office for nine years.
The case first came to light 10 years ago, when police discovered that some people who had received compensation after supposedly being sacked by a food wholesale company, had never worked for the company.
As investigations continued, the case uncovered a massive network of corruption, involving hundreds of businessmen, companies, civil servants and politicians, until over 500 people were under investigation for their roles in the scandal.
The case was so complicated that eventually it was broken into 146 different investigations and the trial took up 152 court sessions which lasted for over a year.
Besides Grinan, four former regional ministers have also been handed prison terms.
