The only person arrested for the unsolved murder of a garbage man in the Salesas building in Oviedo will be financially compensated for the time he spent in prison. The National Court recently awarded a payment of 30,000 euros from the State treasury to JLDR, a 56-year-old man who spent 566 days in prison before being acquitted by the courts for the murder of José Manuel Fernández “LolÃn”, from Oviedo. 59 years old.
Only JLDR was arrested, but the jury that tried his case declared him innocent due to lack of evidence and because the DNA found on the knife allegedly used in the crime did not belong to him. Since his acquittal, no arrests have been made.
“I’m a bastard, but I don’t kill anyone,” declared the acquitted man when in 2019 he decided to move to Tenerife, avoiding the stigma that followed him after his arrest. “Here I am always a murderer even without guilt. That is what remains on the road,” explained the plaintiff, who started a process from the Canary Islands for the State to pay him 164,500 euros for his stay in prison.
The accused was arrested on June 29, 2017 and remains deprived of liberty until January 17, 2019. His defense alleged in favor of his request for compensation that he was imprisoned because of “an abnormal functioning of the Administration of Justice, which caused clear and obvious damages that must be compensated.”
Among the reasons he cited for compensation were the personal and family consequences of being forced to leave Asturias and move to live in Tenerife, feeling that his reputation had been damaged in society.
He also included in his allegations that his honor was affected by the importance of the media in the case and that he was living on the streets.
In its ruling, the National Court recalled that the Supreme Court (TS) established as a general standard that anyone who, after suffering preventive detention, is acquitted has the right to compensation.
The Constitutional Court (TC) continues and does not distinguish between people who are exempt for lack of evidence or ordered to dismiss the case, as long as there are damages shown.
Deprivation of personal life
In this case, the Court considered it appropriate to compensate the only person arrested for the crime of Salesas for his 566 years of detention, which “undoubtedly deprived him of maintaining and improving his personal and family life. ”
However, it is not accepted that the move to the Canary Islands is included in these damages, because the accused lived for a long time in Tenerife before his arrest and because he continued to give an address in the Principality of Asturias as his legal. domicile in this case.
