Sean Connery blames health for failure to appear at Spanish court

Oct 15, 2010, 13:49 GMT

Malaga, Spain - Scottish actor Sean Connery on Friday failed to appear at a Spanish court where he had been summoned for interrogation in connection with a corruption case on Friday, judicial sources said.

The 80-year-old actor and his wife Micheline cited health reasons and their advanced age for not coming to Spain, but pledged to cooperate with the judicial proceedings, in a fax they sent the court in the holiday resort of Marbella this week.

The court could now send a prosecutor to interrogate Connery abroad, or task a foreign judge with doing so, the sources said.

Connery lives in the Bahamas, according to Spanish media.

He is one of about 20 people indicted in the case related to a villa the actor owned in Marbella, where he used to spend holidays until 1999. The building was then sold, allegedly for a high profit.

A four-storey building was then built on the land in 2004 and 2005 on what investigators suspect was an illegal construction permit issued under Marbella's notoriously corrupt mayor, the late Jesus Gil y Gil.

The police investigation is known as Operation Goldfinger, named after the movie in which Connery played James Bond in 1964.

The judge charged with the case recently accused the British ambassador to Spain of intimidation, after the diplomat wrote to him that Connery could sue those who made the judicial proceedings public.

The magistrates' organ CGPJ rejected the complaint filed by judge Ricardo Puyol, saying he could deal with the ambassador's accusations without interference from the CGPJ.