Local Wildman Captured
The Asturian Guardia Civil have finally brought to justice suspected murderer, Tomasin, whose brother Miguel was found dead in September; his body was severely bruised and his skull crushed.
It wasn’t easy finding Tomasin. For the past two decades he has lived alone in the surrounding woods and hills of La Llaneza without anyone hardly ever seeing him. He knows the area extremely well, well enough that, like a phantom, he appeared and disappeared at will.
After a massive manhunt with helicopters and dogs failed to find him, the Guardia changed tactics and stationed a number of agents near the phantom’s cabin with orders to wait it out. Finally Tomasin appeared one day by a creek near his cabin and the agents pounced on him. The nearly invisible man is now very visible in a jail cell where he awaits trial.
Too Many Mohammeds
CiU catalan contender, Josep Antoni Duran i Lledia, has remarked that he feels uncomfortable that there are so many Mohammeds in Catalonia now. “Each time there are more and more immigrants, and many don’t try and integrate into Catalan and Spanish society.”
Although he aimed his comments at immigrants in general, he singled out those who profess the Muslim faith. It’s not the first time he’s taken aim. In October he wrote in a blog that “I’m concerned that more Mohammeds are being born here instead of Jordis and Josés.”
Duran i Lleida, otherwise an admired politician, has been heavily criticized for his comments, which lay the blame on Catalonia’s woes squarely at immigrants’ feet.
Guardias Innocent of Torture
The Supreme Court has over-turned a decision by a Guipúzcoa (Basque Country) court which had found four Guardia Civil officers guilty of torture. The tortured in question, Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola, were the authors of the ETA attack against the T-4 terminal at the Madrid airport back in 2006.
The Supreme Court said that the Basque Court’s verdict rested on weak evidence and less than rigorous procedure that gratuitously violated the presumption of innocence.
All in all, it seems the Supreme Court figured that the Basque Court swallowed everything that the two prisoners said, when it is a well-known tactic of ETA that all activists, if arrested, must declare they have been tortured.