Mother and daughter on trial for shooting dead Spanish politician in León
Montserrat González, aged 60, murdered Isabel Carrasco, provincial president of the PP, on a pedestrian bridge in León in 2014. The criminal trial began this Tuesday.
Mother and daughter on trial for shooting dead Spanish politician in León
This Tuesday saw the beginning in the city of León of a trial against a sixty-year-old woman and her daughter, accused of murdering in broad daylight a prominent conservative leader by gunshot, in an incident that shook Spanish public opinion.
According to the public prosecution and eyewitnesses, Montserrat González shot Isabel Carrasco in the back—who headed the provincial government of the Popular Party—on the afternoon of 12 May 2014, when the politician was passing through a pedestrian footbridge in the city centre of León.
The alleged shooter concealed her identity beneath a headscarf and dark glasses. After the first shot, she fired twice more at the victim's head. She then left the scene accompanied by her daughter, Triana Martínez, who was waiting nearby.
The intervention of a former law enforcement officer who happened to be in the area proved crucial. The man discreetly followed the two women and alerted the police, which enabled their arrest. Furthermore, he observed them throwing the pistol used in the crime into a car belonging to a municipal officer, Raquel Gago, also charged in the same case.
During the opening session of the proceedings at the Provincial Court, González admitted responsibility for the killing and explained that she committed it as retaliation for Carrasco's behaviour towards her daughter.
Martínez had worked on a temporary contract at the León Provincial Council until 2011, when she was replaced by another candidate. The accused told the court that the dismissal was due to her daughter's rejection of the then president of the institution's sexual advances, a position Carrasco had held since 2007.
When asked if she felt remorse, González was emphatic: "No. If I said otherwise, I would be lying." She justified her act by asserting that the deceased "continued to torment" her child.
The prosecution is seeking a prison sentence of 23 years for each of the three accused: the alleged shooter, her daughter and the public official whose vehicle was used to conceal the murder weapon.
The crime generated profound shock in Spanish society, unaccustomed to this type of political violence since ETA declared the definitive end of its terrorist activity in October 2011. In the preceding decades, numerous PP representatives had been victims of deadly attacks attributed to the Basque armed group.
_Information from i24NEWS_
Source: Google News MS — Crime