Logroño, (EFE).- Gonzalo Martín, the spokesman for the family of Álex, the 9-year-old boy murdered in Lardero, has asked this Tuesday that a competent ministry contact them so that “responsibilities are cleared up” for having released conditional to Francisco Javier Almeida, a “repeat killer who was on the street.”
The Provincial Court of La Rioja has sentenced Almeida to reviewable permanent prison for the treacherous murder of the child on October 28, 2021; and 15 years in prison for a crime of sexual assault.
Almeida had been on probation since April 2020, after a 30-year prison sentence for the murder and sexual assault of a real estate agent in Logroño in 1998 and, previously, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for sexually assaulting a minor in 1993.
The penalty, known this Tuesday and which is the maximum contained in the Criminal Code, was requested by the prosecutor and the private prosecutions, exercised by the family of the minor; and popular, on behalf of the Clara Campoamor Association, during the trial, which lasted seven days and was held by a jury.
On March 30, the popular jury unanimously found Almeida, who is now 56 years old, guilty of the crimes of murder and sexual assault on a minor with “extreme violence” and without him having the opportunity to defend himself.
“A predatory monster”
“Both the family and I, as spokesperson, would like a member of an organization or the corresponding ministries to contact us, because responsibilities remain to be cleared up,” Martín said in statements to journalists.
The boy’s great-uncle also stressed that if Almeida had not been released from prison in April 2020 on probation, “at this time we would not be talking about Álex.”
“We are satisfied with the sentence, but this does not stop here: it is a point and followed. We ask for responsibilities and we want the full sentence to be fulfilled ”, he stressed.
Regarding the possibility of demanding these responsibilities from the official level, he has assured that the family has the “ideal” person, Alicia Redondo, the lawyer who has exercised the private and popular prosecution in this process, who has praised “how he has fought ” throughout the procedure.
He has hoped that “this predatory murderer will die in jail” because he is “a monster” who was on the street despite being a repeat offender.
Satisfied with the penalty
For his part, in statements to journalists, Redondo has acknowledged that this 200-page sentence is “very good” and upholds practically all of his requests.
The ruling also includes all the accessory measures requested, such as the prohibition of Almeida’s residence in La Rioja for 10 years once the sentence is completed and, in the hypothetical case that he can be released from jail, which cannot be approach the family, he said.
Redondo has specified that it is the second reviewable permanent prison sentence handed down in La Rioja (after the murder conviction of the mother of the 5-year-old girl Carolina in March 2022) and, in both, this lawyer has appeared as an accusation in representation of the Clara Campoamor association.
“On a legal level, we are very happy, but hopefully we will not have to be in this situation again,” he added.
The family is “very happy” in relation to the work of justice, but has “a bittersweet feeling” because “Álex is not there and that is the reality with which they have to continue dealing every day,” he stressed.