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Suspect held in Spain over ‘attempted terrorist assassination’

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, co-founder of Spain's far-right Vox party, was shot in the head earlier this month. The police now have a suspect in detention.

Spanish police investigate after far-right politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot earlier this month.
Spanish police investigate after far-right politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot earlier this month. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

A suspect has been remanded in custody for the “attempted terrorist assassination” of a co-founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party, the High Court in Madrid announced Friday.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a former leader of Spain’s main right-wing political party in Catalonia who went on to co-found Vox, was shot in the head in Madrid earlier this month.

“The judge has decided to remand the detainee in Lanjaron”, in the south of Spain, “in custody for the offence of attempted terrorist assassination”, the court said in a statement.

His girlfriend, arrested with him on Monday in Lanjaron, has been released on parole, as has a third suspect, arrested on Monday in the southern city of Malaga.

The three suspects are not “the direct perpetrators” of the crime, the police said in a statement.

The main suspect, accused of shooting the politician, is still being sought by the police, who have identified him as a “Frenchman of Tunisian origin with several previous convictions in France, his country of residence”.

The three other suspects, one British and the others Spanish, are suspected of having provided logistical assistance, said police.

Vidal-Quadras was leader of the conservative PP party in the northeastern Catalonia region in the 1990s. He went on to be an MEP and then was among the founders of Vox, which he left shortly after its creation.

Following the shooting on November 9, he was taken to Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital, which said in a statement on Thursday that he would be discharged after suffering a double fracture of the jaw.

Vidal-Quadras, who is close to the exiled Iranian opposition, has accused the leaders in Tehran of being behind the assassination attempt, according to those close to him.

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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

Spain’s PM to set date for recognition of Palestinian state on Wednesday

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Friday he will on Wednesday announce the date on which Madrid will recognise a Palestinian state along with other nations.

Spain's PM to set date for recognition of Palestinian state on Wednesday

“We are in the process of coordinating with other countries,” he said during an interview with private Spanish television station La Sexta when asked if this step would be taken on Tuesday as announced by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta had agreed to take the first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Borrell told Spanish public radio last week that Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognise a Palestinian state on May 21, saying he had been given this date by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Tuesday that Dublin was certain to recognise Palestinian statehood by the end of the month but the “specific date is still fluid”.

So far, 137 of the 193 UN member states have recognised a Palestinian state, according to figures provided by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

Despite the growing number of EU countries in favour of such a move, neither France nor Germany support the idea. Western powers have long argued such recognition should only happen as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

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