Spain's highest judge resigned on Thursday after a month-long scandal over his use of public funds to pay for trips to holiday resorts that has tarnished the image of the judiciary.
The scandal has dented the image the judiciary in a country battered by recession and budget cuts.
Fellow judges accused chief justice Carlos Divar of using 30,000 euros ($38,100) from his expense account to pay for about 30 trips to luxury hotels and restaurants, mainly in the southern Spanish resort of Marbella.
He denied any wrongdoing and said they were official trips.
“He has presented his resignation,''Fernando de Rosa, vice president of the CGPJ council of judges, the judicial regulator, told a news conference.
The Spanish Supreme Court celebrated its 200th anniversary on Monday.
King Juan Carlos, who recently apologised for his own scandal after going on an elephant hunting trip in Botswana at a time when ordinary citizens were being asked to tighten their belts in an economic downturn, did not attend the ceremony.
The king instead sent his son, which local media said was a sign of Divar's isolation and imminent resignation.
While they did not involve enormous sums, reports of Divar's use of his expense accounts have scandalised Spaniards who are weathering a harsh economic downturn and budget cuts in state schools and hospitals.
One in every four Spanish workers is unemployed and many Spaniards blame politicians and bankers for their economic woes after a long property and construction boom turned into a bust four years ago.
The Spanish government has agreed with the European Union to receive a loan of up to 100 billion euros to support banks that can no longer handle losses from the property crash, further provoking the ire of citizens.
Divar, 70, a devout Catholic who was appointed chief justice in 2008 by the then Socialist government, has said he paid for the private portions of his trips out of his own pocket, only using public money for official duties.
In an interview with El Mundo newspaper last weekend he said he had been the victim of a smear campaign.
However, he declined to name the people he met on the trips in question, saying it was confidential court business.
Both the public prosecutor and the Supreme Court turned down requests to investigate Divar's expenses, citing lack of proof and saying there was no legal obligation for him to justify expenses in detail.
Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardon has also backed him.
Since the Divar scandal broke, expense accounting rules have changed and judges are now required to give more detail about their official business trips.
Three magistrates' associations, as well as 17 top provincial judges had asked Divar to resign, citing his “frivolous, excessive and abusive''trips and regretting the “impotence, shame and sadness''the situation had caused the judicial branch.
The judicial council, or CGPJ, had not called for his resignation because he had signalled he would step down.
The ruling conservative People's Party accepted a request by leftist groups for Divar to appear before a parliamentary committee, but no date has been set yet and it is not clear whether the hearing will now proceed given his resignation.(Reuters/NAN)
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