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CRIME

Two teens added to list of arrests over killing of gay man in Spain

Two more suspects, both minors, have been arrested in Spain over the weekend killing of a young gay man that sparked nationwide protests, police said Friday.

Two teens added to list of arrests over killing of gay man in Spain
Photo: Curro de la Torre/AFP

Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was out with friends in the northern city of Coruña in the early hours of Saturday when an argument started outside a nightclub.

His friends told Spanish media that Luiz (pictured below) was making a video call when two passersby accused him of trying to film them on his phone.

When Luiz explained he was talking to a friend by video, he was attacked by one of the passersby, leaving him with a badly bruised face.

Shortly after, the attacker allegedly returned with several others who beat Luiz unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he died from his injuries later on Saturday.

“Two new arrests, two minors of Spanish nationality, linked to the Samuel homicide, bringing to six the number of people detained at this stage,” the national police tweeted on Friday.

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Is Spain really a tolerant country when it comes to LGBTQ+ people?

Four suspects aged between 20 and 25 — three men and one woman — had been arrested over the death earlier in the week.

None of the suspects knew the victim, police told AFP.

The assailants shouted homophobic slurs while beating Luiz, according to his friends’ version of the events.

Police have not yet deemed it a homophobic attack, a spokesman saying “all hypothesis are open”.

The attack coincided with Pride celebrations in Spain and sparked protests in cities including Madrid and Barcelona on Monday night to demand better protection for gay people.

Demonstrators carried signs with slogans including “what they call you while they kill you matters”.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the killing, calling it a “savage and merciless act” in a tweet.

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CRIME

Dutch woman arrested over shooting of right-wing Spanish politician

A Dutch woman was arrested in the Netherlands in relation to an attack on a right-wing Spanish politician who was shot in Madrid, Spanish police said on Tuesday.

Dutch woman arrested over shooting of right-wing Spanish politician

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party, was shot in the face in broad daylight near his home in the upscale Salamanca neighbourhood on November 9 by a motorcycle passenger.

Long a supporter of the Iranian opposition, the 78-year-old Vidal-Quadras has accused the Iranian regime of involvement in the shooting.

Four people had already been arrested as part of the investigation into the shooting, but the suspected gunman — a French national of Tunisian origin with several previous convictions in France — remains at large.

“A woman was arrested in Holland for her alleged participation in the financing and preparation of the attack on Vidal-Quadras,” the national police said in a brief statement.

Police said she was detained after Spain issued a European arrest warrant.

Vidal-Quadras was a member and then vice-president of the European Parliament between 1994 and 2014.

He was also a former head of the centre-right People’s Party in Catalonia.

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