On Thursday afternoon, 22nd March, a fight occurred in the Plaza del Congreso Eucarístico in Elche, next to the Basilica of Santa María. As a consequence, two young men were apprehended, and at least two others were identified.

A knife was even brandished during the street altercation in which the four were involved. Those who have been arrested are facing charges of making severe threats with a knife.

Shortly prior to 5:00 p.m., an altercation ensued. The local police were informed by a witness, and they promptly dispatched multiple units to the location.

It is believed that the altercation originated over an electric scooter. One of the detainees had loaned the other one a scooter, and he was requesting its return after claiming that it had not been returned.

A woman has been sentenced to a total of 19 years and seven and a half months in prison by the Jury Court of the Seventh Section of the Alicante Court, which is located in Elche. She was convicted of murdering her two-year-old son in Bigastro by suffocation after having routinely abused him, as she had done with her other sons.

The Court, which upheld the jury’s verdict, convicted her of one count of murder, another count of habitual abuse, and six counts of bodily harm. The Court considered the aggravating circumstance of kinship and the mitigating circumstances of confession, undue delay, and acting under the influence of drugs.

The convicted woman is required to pay €100,000 in compensation to each of the deceased’s two brothers, as well as an additional €10,000 to the deceased’s twin, for the injuries and after-effects he experienced as a result of the incident.

A house in the town of Bigastro was the residence of the mother and her children, who were two-year-old twins and a nine-year-old girl at the time, as indicated by the statement of proven facts in the sentence. The convicted woman struck the twins with a variety of objects on the head, torso, or extremities and shook them on at least six occasions, resulting in multiple fractures.

On June 11th, 2022, the woman returned from the park with the two children and, after putting one of them to bed, grabbed the other by the neck and squeezed him until he perished by strangulation, the attacks continued repeatedly, establishing a climate of peaceful disruption.

The jury determined that the defendant’s psychological state was exacerbated by her drug use since the age of 20, which had a detrimental impact on her willpower at the time of the homicide. The prosecution and defence concurred with the Prosecutor’s Office during the oral hearing, while the defendant acknowledged the facts. The Alicante Court’s sentence is not definitive and may be appealed to the Civil and Criminal Division of the TSJCV.

As per a parliamentary response to PP senator Agustín Almodóbar, the Government has disregarded the long-awaited second runway for the Miguel Hernández airport in Alicante-Elche, at least for the next few years. Almodóbar emphasised that the airport has experienced a surge in traffic of over two million travellers in a single year.

“Do you not believe that it would be necessary, given the increasing demand, and that the investment would be more than justified, as has been long demanded by Alicante institutions and society?” The Popular Party leader enquired, characterising the work that Pedro Sánchez’s administration had planned as “insufficient”.

Nevertheless, the Upper House’s response is unequivocal: “Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport currently possesses modern, secure facilities, as well as competitive pricing and an adequate capacity to satisfy air traffic demand and ensure the mobility of its residents.”

The government contends that the “airport manager” already conducts “planning” in accordance with “operational needs and expected traffic demand”, and AENA predicts “future behaviour” in the “sizing” of these infrastructures.

At present, the project is anticipated to encompass “adaptation of the terminal and traffic areas”, as stated in the technical description of the works that were tendered in January of last year. This is part of the first segment of Asistencia Técnica de Redacción de Proyecto (Technical Assistance for Project Draughting,) which is valued at €19.8 million.

In contrast, the second runway is “envisioned as the airport’s ultimate expansion in the current Master Plan and will be constructed only when it is deemed necessary to satisfy the anticipated demand, as determined by technical criteria.”