This appeal against the murder sentence involving Javier Ardines has already been presented before the Supreme Court. On Tuesday the final date to submit briefs arrived. In these appeals, the four convicted individuals’ defenses contend that the jury process and its deliberations were compromised by testimony from Jesús Muguruza and Djillali Benatia, one of the Algerian gunmen and the mediator who played a central role in the August crime dated 16, 2018. Attribution: TSJA.
The two assassins, Djillali Benatia and Maamar Kelii, aided by Pedro Luis Nieva and Adrián Fernández and Fernando Barutell, represented by the crime’s instigator, Javier Beramendi, received prison sentences from the second division of the State Court last December. The verdict held 22 years in prison in line with the guilty verdict. The judge, Francisco Javier Iriarte, noted that the intermediary Jesús Muguruza, defended by Luis Mendiguren, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The special prosecution, led by Belén Rico and supported by the family under the legal order of Antonio Pineda, had requested 25 years in prison. The criminal law division of the Asturias Supreme Court of Justice, TSJA, confirmed the sentence upheld by the Supreme Court in a judgment authored by Judge Ignacio Vidau. Attribution: TSJA.
The defenses revisit arguments that the Court and the TSJA had already rejected. Muguruza’s lawyer maintains that there is no proven order for the assassins to kill a member of parliament who allegedly had an affair with his wife. It is also argued that the wiretaps against the alleged instigator were not justified and that other investigative avenues were not pursued, for example, the discovery of an Ardinel lover’s traces on the railings used in the ambush. The life sentence remains in view. The defense contends that the early statements by Jesús Muguruza to the Civil Guard violated the rights of the questioned person, and that the TSJA had issued multiple verdicts with investigators able to reach those concerned in any event. Attribution: TSJA.
Benatia’s defense, currently represented by a Madrid lawyer, again questions the legality of Algeria’s solitary confinement. The claim is that the Llanes judge compelled him to incriminate himself, a point denied by the Criminal Police agents and by the various court decisions in this case. Before the Supreme Court, Barutell argues that among the documents presented to the jury was an annulled statement by Jesús Muguruza, a procedural irregularity the TSJA had removed and that defense counsel themselves could have requested. This file can be printed in the record. Attribution: TSJA.