Decision due in Camps suit but jury still out on political return

The 26 exhausting days of the corruption trial against former Valencia regional premier Francisco Camps and a fellow Popular Party (PP) member have been a summarized version of the three years since the charges were first brought forward.

Prosecutors provided ample evidence against Camps and Ricardo Costa - his aide and the former leader of the PP in Valencia - to support their case that both men accepted expensive clothing from the corrupt Gürtel business network, which received valuable public contracts in exchange for their gifts.

The defense introduced some attenuating circumstances but above all it placed every incriminating piece of evidence under fire, seeking to create uncertainty over the case.

On Friday, the last day of the trial, Camps insisted on his innocence one more time. "I am innocent and I have come here looking for justice from my trusting and committed fellow citizens," he told the jury.

Judge Juan Climent on Monday will come up with a jury verdict form with questions the nine jurors can answer. To be found guilty, seven must vote in favor; an acquittal will only need five votes.

Camps and Costa face fines of up to 41,000 euros if they are found guilty of accepting bribes while holding public office.

But no matter what happens, it seems certain that Camps, once a strongman in his Valencia fiefdom, which he ruled between 2003 and 2011, is now a political corpse.

"He is dead, he is dead," the mayor of Valencia, Rita Barberá, was overheard saying on the day that Camps resigned in order to prepare for his trial. The economic state in which he left the region, now found to be nothing short of bankruptcy, has undermined his authority even further.

Yet even though a return to the political limelight now seems impossible, Camps retains the public support of Mayor Barberá and the president of the provincial authority of Valencia, Alfonso Rus, both of whom are at odds with the new regional premier, Alberto Fabra.

However, many voices within the PP privately hope that the verdict will ax any attempt by Camps to return to regional politics.

An acquittal and a return, many feel, would create a crisis in the Valencia PP.