Spanish court has acquitted the former head of the government of the eastern region of Valencia, a close ally of new Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, of corruption charges. Francisco Camps, who resigned in July, was accused of accepting bribes in the form of designer suits worth 14,000 euros ($19,000) between 2005 and 2008 while president of the Valencia regional government. But the jury ruled by a margin of five votes against four that the charges could not be proven after deliberating for three days. “There is no evidence that Camps did not pay for the clothes,” the spokesman for the jury said as he read out the ruling at Valencia’s main court. Camps smiled broadly as the decision was read out while dozens of his opponents who were in the court to hear the verdict jeered. The case, which erupted in 2009, is tangled up in a wider web of alleged corruption and industrial espionage involving several local Popular Party members and Francisco Correa, a businessman with close links to the party. Despite the scandal, Camps was re-elected with a strong majority as head of the Valencia regional government in local elections in May. Camps has been a target of Spain’s so-called “indignant” activists, who have organised mass protests and marches since May against political corruption, the economic crisis and soaring unemployment. The court also acquitted Camps’ former deputy, Ricardo Costa, of charges that he too accepted bribes in the form of designer suits in exchange for contracts. The Popular Party returned to power at the national level under Rajoy last month following a landslide general election win in November. “The Popular Party is very pleased with the outcome of the trial,” the party’s secretary-general, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, told a news conference. Rajoy had stood by Camps. When he resigned as head of the Valencia regional government in July, Rajoy said the move would “not affect the opinion that I have always had of Francisco Camps and his honour”. In August 2009, a court in Valencia had dropped an investigation into Camps. But in May 2010, Spain’s Supreme Court ordered the reopening of the probe following an appeal by prosecutors and the local branch of the Socialist Party.