News
Politics moves
forwards
Domestic violence
A meeting between Spain’s president,
Pedro Sánchez, and the president of
Cataluña, Quim Torra, was expected to
take place on February 26. The
development follows the willingness
expressed by Sr Sánchez to build a
deal with the Catalan administration
ahead of its forthcoming regional
elections, expected in May at the
earliest. has committed to staying within the
limit of Spain’s Constitution which
does not permit regions to break away
from central government.
However, it is understood that any
agreement between the socialist PSOE
party led by Sr Sánchez and the
separatist Esquerra Republicana de
Catalunya (ERC) of Sr Torra would
only be signed if Sr Sánchez agreed to
address Cataluña’s drive for
independence. A number of former Catalan politicians
and others remain in jail after being
arrested for their alleged involvement
in the illegal independence held in the
region in October 2017. Former
President Carles Puigdemont and five
former cabinet ministers fled Spain.
The Spanish president has already
warned that negotiations could turn
out to be “very long” but that he is
approaching them with “a will of
absolute transparency.” However, he
For his part, the Catalan president has
asked for an international mediator
and, “the recognition of all parties to
the conflict, including prisoners and
exiles.”
At present the coalition between Sr
Sánchez PSOE and the left-leaning
Unidas Podemos led by Pablo Iglesias
accounts for 155 of the 350 seats in
Parliament, not far off the 176 required
for a majority.
Christmas tragedy
re-investigated
A Spanish court last month ordered a
new investigation into the deaths of a
British man and two of his young
children in Mijas on Christmas Eve.
Gabriel Diya, aged 52, his son Praise-
Emmanuel, 16, and daughter Comfort,
nine, all drowned in a swimming pool
in front of their wife and mother
Olubunmi and surviving sibling
Favour, aged 14.
The family from London were
spending the holiday on a complex in
the town when Comfort reportedly got
into difficulties in the water. Mr Diya
and his son dived in to help her, but all
three died in the incident. Mrs Diya
was in their holiday villa at the time
and raised the alarm, but she later
claimed that by the time assistance
came it was too late.
problem with the pool. An engineer
and a professional diver hired by Mrs
Diya’s lawyer, Javier Toro, were
ordered to inspect the pool at Club La
Costa World by the new court ruling,
and to return their findings to the
judge hearing the case. The move is
expected to delay the judge’s final
ruling on the incident by several weeks.
The work is understood to include
checking the pump and motor at the
pool where the deaths occurred, plus
analysis of the water circulation, the
pool suction and pool drains, as well as
its electrical installations. The court has
also ordered the resort to provide a
copy of the CCTV footage of the area
from the day of the tragedy. The pool
remains closed while these
investigations continue.
Police said it had been a “tragic
accident” and had resulted from the
victims’ inability to swim. However
Mrs Diya has insisted her family could
all swim and has claimed there was a
9
A 59-year-old Dutch national living on
the Costa Blanca has handed himself in
to police after the body of his 36-year-
old Romanian partner was found
decapitated in a rolled-up quilt dumped
in an underground rubbish bin. The
grim discovery was made by refuse
collectors in Moraira, 80 kilometres
north of Alicante, on February 17. Arthur
Karvink, who had previously appeared
in a Benidorm court on domestic
violence offences, ran a real estate
business in the town.
Law reform
The government is set to reform the law
on sexual assaults and to strengthen the
rights of victims. The move follows
several high-profile cases including that
of an 18-year-old girl, gang-raped in
Pamplona, whose attackers were initially
charged with sexual abuse, a lesser
charge, sparking public protests. The
new law presently being drafted will also
tackle sexual harassment in the
workplace and measures aimed at
preventing sex crimes.
Ryanair pay-back
A court in Elche, near Alicante, last
month ordered Ryanair to refund the
fee which the airline charged a passenger
to take hand luggage on board a flight.
On the journey from Liverpool to
Alicante, the traveller was charged an
additional €50 which the airline must
now pay back, plus interest. The flight
date was before Ryanair introduced its
current cabin bag policy, and the carrier
described the incident as an “isolated”
case.
Conference cancelled
The world’s largest conference on
mobile phone technology was cancelled
last month. The Mobile World
Conference is held every year in
Barcelona but was called off after leading
firms including Amazon, LG, Sony, Intel,
Facebook, BT and Nokia pulled out over
concerns stemming from the
coronavirus outbreak. Madrid however
denied the event was cancelled over
health concerns, but did not explain
what was behind the decision.
Road accident
Several injuries were reported following
a traffic accident on the coast road
between Nerja and Torrox on February
17. A car and a van are reported to have
been in a head-on collision. Two people
were taken to hospital in Vélez-Málaga
in a serious condition.