The Second Section of the Provincial Court has issued this Wednesday the orders by which extends provisional prison to three of the four defendants for the murder of the IU councilor of Llanes, Javier Ardines, on August 16, 2018 in the parish of Llanisca Belmonte de Pría. This fact occurs two days after the Prosecutor’s Office requested this extension, considering that the evidence of criminality against the accused remains and that there is a risk of flight due to the seriousness of the possible penalty – the Public Prosecutor requests 25 years in prison for each defendant.
For their part, that same Monday the defenses of three of the four investigated DB, JM and PLN, had requested the release of their defendants after serving two years of confinement since their arrest in February 2019. The accused appeared by videoconference from the different penitentiary centers in which they are admitted.
The Principality of Asturias Prosecutor’s Office attributes a crime of murder to the four investigated. To PLN, a friend of the victim, he attributes a crime of murder as an inducer; the two alleged hitmen of Algerian nationality (MK and DB), as co-authors, and JMB, alleged intermediary, as a necessary cooperator. The Public Ministry requests 25 years in prison for each of the four defendants.
The events, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, occurred at dawn on August 16, at around four thirty in the morning, with enough time to prepare a better ambush, the defendants MK and DB arrived in Belmonte and placed on the same road, crosswise, two more fences (the first, from day 1, was still there). They did it in a way that prevented the passage of any vehicle, to make sure not to fail and increase the time available to board Javier Ardines.
In addition, to have more guarantees of success and nullify the possibility of defending the victim, each of the defendants carried a can of pepper spray, the defendant PN a stick and the defendant JM, a baseball bat. They then hid by a wall and waited. About 6 in the morning Ardines left his house in his van and, when he reached the point where the fences were placed, he stopped the march and got out of the vehicle to move them away. He left the engine running, the lights on, and the driver’s door open.
At that moment, defendants MK and DB suddenly came out of hiding and sprayed Javier Ardines with pepper spray. The victim took off running, pursued by the accused. He was hit by being hit on the head with either the stick or the bat. He fell to the ground on his knees and then on his stomach. He was also strangled from behind by one of the two defendants, in any case, agreed.
The victim was unable to defend himself, just intuitively placing his right arm as a shield. Once on the ground, he was held or dragged a few meters. As a result of the assault, Ardines passed away. After the events, the defendant JM gave MK a sum of money for the work carried out.
By order of February 18, a search was agreed at the home of the defendant DB, in Bilbao, and it was found inside, among other effects, a personal defense spray, a pepper spray, 7 knives, a Taser of 3,800 volts, a Taser in the shape of a brass knuckles and several cartridges.
The last to enter provisional prison was the Algerian DB, on May 14, after he was handed over to Spain by the Swiss authorities after serving a sentence for other crimes.
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