Barcelona  - Jaime Martinez-Bordiu, 44, grandson of Spain's 1939-75 dictator Francisco Franco, has been sentenced to one year in prison for abusing his girlfriend, a Barcelona court announced Wednesday.

Martinez-Bordiu will not however be jailed, because he did not have a criminal record.

Martinez-Bordiu threw Ruth Martinez onto a chair, hurled her suitcase to the ground and threatened to kill her to prevent her from leaving the hotel where the two were staying in the southern town of Mijas in 2007, the court said.