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CRIME

‘I did it for his own good’: Dad who killed baby

A Madrid man wrote a chilling letter before cutting the throat of his 19-month-old baby and seriously injuring his five-year-old son.

'I did it for his own good': Dad who killed baby
When emergency services arrived at the scene, they found the baby to have died from severe blood loss and the older boy to be seriously injured with a knife still stuck in his back. File Photo: Domini

Spanish police have found a note left behind by the father-of-two, Uruguayan national Jorge Diego C.A., in which he explained the reasons for murdering his two children.

“I’ve killed them for their own good, so they don’t suffer like I have and don’t live a life like their mother’s,” Spanish newspaper ABC reported him as writing.

The 32-year-old man went ahead with the crime, cutting the throat of his baby son and stabbing his five-year-old in the back.

Spanish police believe the man intended to commit suicide but may have been interrupted by the children’s mother, who turned up at the scene of the crime after repeatedly calling her husband to no avail.

“How could you have done this? Why would you do it?” one neighbour reportedly heard at around Sunday midnight.

He, along with other local residents, told Spanish daily El País that the couple argued “very often”, leading them to believe that the noises and screams they heard that night were due to yet another family quarrel.

When emergency services arrived at the scene, the baby was found to have died from severe blood loss and the older boy to be seriously injured with a knife still stuck in his back.

The children’s mother, who had recently separated from their father, received medical attention along with her sister, both of whom suffered an anxiety attack.

Spanish police are no looking into whether the man was drunk when he carried out the attacks on his children.

There are also indications he may have regularly beaten his wife. 

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CRIME

Dutch gang leader vanishes in Spain after accidental release

A top drug trafficker is on the run after accidentally being bailed from jail in Spain, officials said Tuesday, dodging a bid to extradite him to the Netherlands where his Mocro Maffia gang is based.

Dutch gang leader vanishes in Spain after accidental release

Karim Bouyakhrichan was arrested in January in Marbella, an upmarket tourist resort on Spain’s southern coast, along with five other members of the Mocro Maffia gang.

They are suspected of having bought 172 properties in Spain worth over €50 million ($53.5 million) to launder their gains from drug trafficking.

But the following month a court in the southern city of Málaga decided to grant him provisional release with judicial supervision, against the wishes of public prosecutors and the Spanish government. Judicial sources said Tuesday his whereabouts are now unknown.

“It is worrying news,” Justice Félix Bolaños told a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting when asked about the case.

“I can’t comment on any court decisions, but I do trust that the state security forces will bring this person to justice as soon as possible,” he added.

The Málaga court said in its ruling granting Bouyakhrichan provisional release that the risk that he would flee could be avoided “with other less burdensome security measures” than pre-trial detention.

It imposed bail of €50,000, took away his passport and ordered him to report to the authorities twice a month.

Dutch extradition bid

At the same time Spain’s top criminal court was processing a request for Bouyakhrichan’s extradition to the Netherlands, where he is wanted for large-scale drug trafficking.

But it postponed its extradition proceedings because the Málaga court intended to put Bouyakhrichan on trial first for money laundering, court sources told AFP.

When the Netherlands provided more information to back its extradition request, the top court summoned him to testify and when he failed to appear a fresh warrant for his arrest was issued.

Vincent Veenman, a spokesman at the Dutch public prosecutor’s office in The Hague, said it was “unknown” to them why Bouyakhrichan had not been detained for extradition.

“We are currently awaiting a decision on the extradition request,” he added.

“Our experience with the Spanish justice system is that this cooperation is generally good. Dozens of suspects are handed over every year.”

Bouyakhrichan’s brother Samir, another leading member of the Mocro Maffia, was murdered in 2014 near Marbella, sparking a reorganisation of organised crime groups in the region.

The Mocro Maffia made international headlines in 2022 after it emerged that Dutch Crown Princess Amalia had been placed under heavy protection in response to fears of an attack by the group.

Dutch media reported earlier last week that the 20-year-old heir to the Dutch throne studied in Madrid after being forced to ditch plans to live in student accommodation in Amsterdam because of the threats.

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