Tag: prosecution

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

The Canary Guide Día de Canarias #WeekendTips 26-28 May 2023

 
What an interesting last weekend of May ahead. Weather predictions are showing some rain showers are likely across Gran Canaria. This extended #WeekendTips covers up to Tuesday, when all things Canarian are celebrated on the Día de Canarias. There’ll be some gorgeous Patron Saints’ festivities happening in San Fernando de Maspalomas as well as in Valleseco.

Fun Fact:
Valleseco literally means “dry valley” in Spanish, but is actually one of the wettest municipalities Gran Canaria. Nestling between the famous fresh water sources of Firgas & Teror, half way up the island’s mountainous northern slopes, this area is well known for its apple growers, cider and its weekly market

Six weeks since the unexplained disappearance of Anna-Karin on Gran Canaria

The authorities on Gran Canaria have been engaged in a rigorous search for Swedish tourist Anna-Karin Bengtsson, who went missing in the south of Gran Canaria around April 9. Her unexplained disappearance has caused her family much distress, with no clues to her whereabouts having emerged in the six weeks since they first realised her phone was no longer functioning.

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Murder trial underway in Las Palmas over strangulation of disabled homeless man in Playa del Inglés

A wheelchair-bound homeless man, Stefan Putreanu, 61, was strangled and his body burned at an unused kiosk where he used to sleep in Playa del Inglés last year.  The man accused of his murder, known only as Ali GG, has denied any involvement in the killing during the dramatic first days of his murder trial, which started on Monday before a jury in Las Palmas.
Turkish born Ali GG, of Spanish nationality, is accused of having strangled the disabled vagrant and then set his body on fire at the abandoned kiosk, on January 11, 2019, but has denied that he was ever at the scene of the crime.
“I have not killed anyone,” said Ali GG, 44, during the first session of the trial against him and his girlfriend, Roberta S, who face, up to 18 years in prison for the crime of murder.
Ali GG. admits that he only knew Putreanu because he claims that the homeless man had stabbed him back in 2017, at a bar; and because he used to pass the kiosks on his way to the shopping centre where he worked selling tourist excursions.
Cameras captured images of the accused man passing near the kiosk at around 9am that morning.  “They are accusing me of something I have not done,” said Ali GG, whose lawyer, Javier de la Llave, presented expert evidence alleging, in his opinion, that it takes from four to five minutes to strangle and kill a person, which does not fit well with the video footage which, says the lawyer, would have only given his client about 40 seconds in which to commit the crime.
Furthermore, the autopsy report recorded the likely time of death at between 12.30pm and 5pm that day, however his client had been recorded passing the kiosk more than 3 hours before that, without any reason to believe he had returned there.  Ali GG.’s lawyer also points to an utter lack of DNA or other evidence placing his client at the scene, stressing that his client was not the the only person who passed through that area on the day and yet because of the previous altercation it seems his client as now seen “as a scapegoat” for a crime he says he did not commit.
The prosecutor maintains that there is a chain of evidence that “undoubtedly” points to the accused having carried out the killing, alleging that the he arrived at about 09:00 on January 11, 2019, at the abandoned kiosks, in the Parque Europeo in Playa del Inglés, where the man used to sleep at night, and strangled him, without the man having any possibility of defending himself as he was lying down and not wearing his orthopedic prostetic legs.
According to the prosecutor, hours later, that afternoon, the accused, accompanied by his partner of Irish nationality, Roberta S., who was also arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice to murder, and both of whom lived in San Fernando, returned to the scene and in order to erase the traces of his crime, they say he sprayed the body with alcohol, or another accellerant, and set it on fire, while she watched out in case anyone else appeared.
During the second day of the trial, yesterday, several witnesses seemed to cast doubt on the prosecution case, testifying that they had seen Putreanu in an agitated state, but very much alive, that same afternoon, around 2pm and 5pm.  One witness claims he saw another person rifling through the homeless man’s possessions, but that he did not recognise him as the accused.  Another says he saw a tall man spraying liquid where the fire started, and leaving the scene by jumping over a wall, saying too that he did not think this was Ali GG.
Ali GG’s son also gave evidence that the police had been coercive, but that his father was not a violent man.
The trial continues.

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