Irishman’s killer has bail set at 100,000€ by Torrevieja court

The man accused of killing a 37-year-old Northern Irish man with two shots in Rojales, whose body was found last January under a lemon tree on a farm in Rojales, will be able to leave prison on provisional release if he pays a bail of 100,000 euros agreed this week by the Torrevieja court that is investigating the murder of John J. Hardy, who came to spend a few days of vacation at a home in Orihuela Costa where a friend lived who allegedly ended up becoming his executioner.

Family and friends of John, who lived in Northern Ireland, travelled to the Vega Baja region to hunt for him for several weeks after he went missing a year ago. They were worried about the worst after he last talked to his family on December 14th, which is what transpired.

Proof

The magistrate thinks that there is enough evidence to keep the charge of homicide going, but at this point in the case, provisional custody is no longer necessary to make sure the accused is “procedurally available.”

The court’s decision yesterday, Wednesday December 9th, says again that pretrial custody should only be used in rare and reasonable situations and for the shortest amount of time possible, as the Constitutional Court has said. In this case, the judge knows that the goals—mainly stopping the possibility of flight—can be met via “less restrictive of the right to liberty” preventative measures that serve the same goals as pretrial detention.

So, the judge agrees with the defense’s short argument and orders the accused to be held in custody until they can post bail of 100,000 euros. He will be released on bail if the bail is paid, which it hadn’t been as of Wednesday. However, he will have to go to court every day, live in Spain, give up his passport, not leave the country without permission from the court, and not talk to or get close to anyone involved in the case within 1,000 metres.

The order, which can be appealed, says that if you don’t follow any of these rules, you could lose your temporary parole and have to go back to jail.

The man who the Guardia Civilthinks committed the crime is asking for release because there is evidence against the other suspect that makes him look guilty. This other suspect was not put in jail after being arrested as an accomplice. In the trunk of Czech citizen Michal M.’s automobile, who denied being involved in the crime, two licence plates from his home country were uncovered. Forensic experts from the Civil Guard found blood from the deceased on the plates.

The defence also doubts Michal’s claims that he didn’t know anything about the dead person and that they had both planned to go back to Dublin together.

The defence further points out that the Civil Guard checked Jonathan Alan’s automobile very carefully at a checkpoint in Dolores just before the crime and discovered no guns. The defence says that Michal and John were in a different car at the checkpoint and that Michal was the last person to see the Northern Irishman alive. The cops at the checkpoint said that Michal and John were still together when they left, and that Jonathan drove away by himself.

The Civil Guard found this BMW X6 at the municipal vehicle storage of the Local Police of Orihuela. They are now waiting for the findings of the tests taken inside.

The defence says that all of these factors show that the two defendants are not in the same circumstances, thus they want to replace Jonathan’s temporary detention with bail of 100,000 euros, which is a lot of money that hasn’t been paid yet.