The fifth and last suspect who was still at large in the murder of Christian J., a 30-year-old Swedish national who died last October from serious injuries he suffered after being dragged by a car in Torrevieja while attempting to stop the theft of his cell phone, has been arrested. The defendant was caught in Alicante after an identity check conducted by members of the National Police’s Citizen Security Brigade. He was remanded in custody yesterday, Tuesday January 13th, after appearing before a judge with the help of attorney Rocío Calero Molina. He was then recognised as one of the four suspects in the car involved in the deadly heist, and the Guardia Civil assumed responsibility for the homicide investigation.
According to sources from the Superior Court of Justice, the duty judge of Alicante, who is the head of the 8th Instruction Court of the Court of First Instance of Alicante, issued a provisional imprisonment yesterday. It was communicated and without bail, and it is currently at the disposal of the 4th Instruction Court of Torrevieja in relation to the case that its head has directed for the crimes of homicide and violent robbery.
The 25-year-old man, a young Spanish man of Moroccan descent, was arrested this week in Alicante following the issuing of a warrant by an Alicante criminal court directing his arrest in order to serve a sentence of one year and four months in prison for an assault offence, which is distinct from the robbery with homicide that took place in Torrevieja.
At the court’s discretion
Since the offenders were based in the city of Alicante, it was verified upon arrival at the police station that there was an outstanding warrant in the homicide investigation being conducted by the Judicial Police Team of the Guardia Civil in Torrevieja, with assistance from the National Police in Alicante. The young man was brought before an Alicante court yesterday morning after the Torrevieja authorities completed the necessary formalities.
The brother of the other young man who turned himself in to the National Police in Alicante at the end of November and was also jailed for his role in the events is the fifth person detained. The two brothers’ arrests follow the first three that were made in the middle of November.
During his appearance before Guardia Civil investigators, the most recent suspect detained denied any direct involvement in the robbery. According to people close to the case who spoke to this newspaper, he denied interacting with the victim and merely acknowledged being in the car—but in the back seat, not as a passenger or the driver.
The third detainee, who was freed on bail, admitted that he was in the car hours prior to the heist but maintained that he did not take part in it. Two of the original three were jailed.
He gave this explanation for why the Guardia Civil discovered his fingerprints in the car the suspects had rented in Alicante before heading to Torrevieja to carry out the heist. While the Swedish national, who subsequently passed away in a hospital, was being restrained, the same young man identified two other individuals and claimed that the brother of the fifth person arrested was the passenger in the vehicle, grabbed the victim’s mobile phone, and instructed the driver to accelerate.
The SIRLAS Group of the North District Police Station in Alicante suspected those involved in the Torrevieja murder of being part of a travelling gang of criminals that robbed people in Alicante, Benidorm, and Torrevieja. The identical strategy that cost Christian his life in Torrevieja was used by the group. Before stealing their victims’ possessions, they would approach them and seem to be asking for directions or something else.
Author: Derek Appleton
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