Two men and a woman of Portuguese nationality, who were arrested in 2023 on suspicion of murdering a 70-year-old compatriot in 2019, began their trial on Friday in the Spanish province of Zamora.
The prosecution lawyer, Miguel Ángel Martín Anero, stated that he would seek the maximum penalty for the trio, as it was a “clear case of homicide” driven by financial motives. He claimed that the suspects intended to steal the money from the victim’s bank accounts and, although the defendants accuse each other, the elderly man “had no chance of defense,” reported La Opinión de Zamora.
The same publication indicated that the facts suggest the suspects “put him to sleep and drowned him in the river, tied him with adhesive tape, put him in a quicklime bag, and buried him… until he was found.”
The Public Prosecutor has demanded a 25-year prison sentence for one of the men and his partner, along with 14 years for the third individual as an accomplice.
According to the accusation, the couple took the victim to Lake Sanábria, where he was given a substance to make him sleep. Subsequently, the suspects drowned the man and threw his body into the Tera river—tied up, with his mouth and head covered in adhesive tape and his legs in a quicklime bag. The third defendant, who was the elderly man’s housemate, allegedly stayed in Verín to provide an alibi.
The victim was found dead in December 2019 in Spain. An autopsy confirmed the death was due to asphyxia by submersion.
Notícias ao Minuto | 16:01 – 22/12/2023
The defense, on the other hand, requested that the three individuals be released without charges, arguing that there is no evidence linking them to the crime. They denied that the alleged accomplice was involved, stating that one of the men was hospitalized in Porto at the time of the crime, while the woman claimed she had back problems and thus could not have thrown the victim’s body into the river.
It is recalled that the body of the Portuguese man was found at the end of December 2019 in the Tera river. Authorities initially considered it a possible suicide and attempted to identify the victim without success. The investigation only progressed two years later when they were able to determine the man’s identity using fingerprint records stored by UK authorities, where the Portuguese man had lived and had a criminal record.
The three suspects were detained in 2023 and, like the victim, lived between Verín and Chaves. They have been in preventive custody since then.
