The Honorable Juan-Alberto BELLOCH

(PSOE- Spanish Socialist Workers´ Party)
Mayor of the City of Zaragoza

Juan-Alberto Belloch, born February 3, 1950 in Mora de Rubielos (Teruel), has had a long and distinguished political career. A member of “Justicia Democrática,” Belloch is a founding member of the association “Jueces para la Democracia” where he was member of the Secretariat in charge of Associative Relations, speaker, and person in charge of Institutional Relations, until the Congress in 1990. He also served a founding role in the “Magistrats européens pour la democratie et les libertés” and the “Asociación pro Derechos Humanos del País Vasco.” (Association Pro Human Rights in the Basque Country).

Belloch served as a judge in La Gomera, Berga, Vic and Alcoy from 1975. From 1981 to 1990, he was magistrate and president of Section 2 and president of the Court of Vizcaya. In 1990, he was elected as member of the General Council of the Judiciary by the Parliament of Spain and delegate adviser for Training and Relations with the Basque Country.

He served as Minister of Justice from 1993 to 1994 and Justice and Home Office minister from 1994 to 1996 under President Felipe Gonzalez’s government. Additionally, he has served as a member of the Spanish Parliament for Zaragoza and Senator for Zaragoza. He has been president of the Socialists of Aragon and speaker of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in Justice and Home Affairs Commission of the Spanish Congress, and president of the Municipal Socialist Group in the City Council of Zaragoza, from the election of June 1999.

He was elected Mayor of Zaragoza from in 2003, and is Vice-president of “Expoagua Zaragoza 2008.”