Santiago Mainar, the forestry worker accused and found guilty of killing Miguel Grima, the Mayor of the town of Fago, has been sentenced to twenty years and nine months in prison. The prosecutor had asked for just three months more for the killing and the illegal possession of firearms.The accused was told the verdict in hospital in Zaragoza where he was admitted last Tuesday after a suspected overdose of pills, although his family who have visited say he has denied trying to commit suicide.
He will also have to pay 105,000 € in compensation to the victim’s family.
The court case was heard in the Huesca provincial court last month, and the murder has achieved widespread coverage in the Spanish media since it took place in January 2007. Mainar at first admitted the crime, but two days later denied it in court, and in his last statement, made on November 25, he continued to defend his innocence.