Island president jailed for bribery

The former president of Spain’s Balearic islands has been found guilty of corruption and jailed for six years for paying a newspaper columnist to praise him in his articles.

Judges in the capital, Palma de Mallorca, yesterday handed down the verdict against Jaume Matas, who was also a Cabinet minister under former prime minister José-Maria Aznar.

Judges said Matas paid nearly €500,000 from 2003-07 to companies owned by columnist Antonio Alemany, who was also employed as Matas’s speechwriter. Alemany was convicted of charges including forgery and jailed for three years.