Logroño, Mar 20 (EFE).- The family of Álex, the 9-year-old boy murdered and sexually assaulted in Lardero (La Rioja) on October 28, 2021, faces this Monday at the start of the trial against Francisco Javier Almeida aware of that the next few days will be “very hard”, but with the desire to “start a new life”.
This has been explained by Gonzalo Martín, Álex’s great-uncle and spokesman for the family since the crime occurred, since the parents have not made any statement so far and this Monday they have asked not to be recorded by the numerous media that follow the trial , which is held at the Provincial Court of Logroño.
They also face this trial, which will last for two weeks, with the hope that this case will be the “last” in which a repeat offender of this type is found free, since Almeida has been on probation since April 2020.
Martín has arrived at the Palace of Justice of La Rioja visibly nervous, partly because of the dozens of journalists before whom he appeared, and accompanied by the president of the Clara Campoamor Association, Blanca Estrella, since this entity exercises popular prosecution; and by the association’s lawyer Alicia Redondo, who also represents the family.
In the first session of the trial, the defendant’s statement is scheduled, for which the public, popular and private accusations request a reviewable permanent prison sentence for the crime of murder and 15 years in prison for sexual assault.
I NEED TO SEE HIS FACE
Since the case was investigated, Almeida has refused to testify and “we hope that now he will speak”, explained Martín, who has recognized that the family would have “many things to tell him, but we are prudent and we are going to wait for the process”, although he has recognized that he needs to “look him in the face”.
“Today is a very hard day, in which a lot of nerves and concerns come together, but there are also mixed feelings because it means an end, starting a new life without Álex, although he will be in our hearts,” he stressed.
He stressed that he hopes that the defendant “will get the maximum sentence” and would like his nephew “to be the last” because “we do not understand how he could be free (Almeida) and without any follow-up”, given that “if he had been watched Perhaps we would not be talking about this situation.”
Martín recalled that the defendant was on probation after murdering a real estate agent in Logroño in 1998, whom he also sexually assaulted, and, “although most of the Treatment Board (of the Cantabrian prison of El Dueso) voted against (that he accessed the third degree), a judge put him on the street and we believe that before that, responsibilities must be cleared up ”.
RESPONSIBILITIES
For its part, the Clara Campoamor Association will request before the National Court the responsibilities that the people who authorized Almeida to be on probation when the events occurred might have, its president has detailed.
“We are going to ensure that he never leaves (from prison),” Estrella stressed in statements to journalists, alluding to Almeida, and questioned “who gave permission for him to leave prison” on probation, “who formed the Treatment Board (of the prison where he was) and which judge signed it”.
“When a judge says that an element like this has good conduct, he should know that rapists, murderers and pedophiles have good conduct in prison, fantastic, because there are no women or children there,” he has had an impact.
For this reason, “we are going to take that prison director, the Board and the judge to the National Court”, given that “the responsibility falls on the State, which cannot look elsewhere” when its institutions “have wrong and have put a dangerous rapist and murderer on the street.”
“He is the murderer, but they are all responsible,” said Estrella, who explained that this is not the first time that his association has undertaken a similar process in situations of this type and “we have won them.”
He cited as an example that of the 11-year-old girl Marutxi Rivas, who was murdered in Galicia in September 1992 by a prisoner who was on leave.
