| "A nice piece o' shmatter" |
VALENCIA (El Pais) The Valencian premier, Francisco Camps, will stand trial. After a two-year investigation and preliminary hearings, a court has decided that there is enough evidence to try Camps over "la causa de los trajes," roughly translated as "SuitGate." Camps, who is also head of the regional branch of the Popular Party (PP), is accused of accepting expensive articles of clothing worth over 14,000 euros from a corrupt business network that operated nationwide and bribed numerous PP officials in exchange for government contracts. If Camps - who was re-elected for office in May despite the shadow of corruption charges - does not step down before, he will be the second regional premier in Spanish history to stand trial after Cantabria leader Juan Hormaechea in 1994. This setback for Camps comes after the Valencian High Court initially closed the case for lack of evidence. The Supreme Court later decided to reopen it.
