Asunta murder trial: Mother and main suspect, Rosario Porto, will represent herself in court
Sunday, January 19, 2014 @ 7:29 PM
MOTHER of murdered 12-year-old Asunta Basterra and prime suspect in her death, Rosario Porto, has announced she will be representing herself in court.
Sra Porto, a qualified solicitor who no longer practises and former French consul for her home town of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia – even though she is Spanish, not French – recently applied to the city's College of Lawyers for permission to act as her own defence.
She has been granted right of audience 'for this case only' in accordance with the General Statute of Legal Practice in Spain, which allows any person with a law degree to represent him or herself in court upon application.
Porto, whose adopted daughter Asunta was found dead in a woods in Teo (A Coruña province), close to the family home and to the luxury villa belonging to her late grandparents on her mother's side, will continue to work with the solicitor who has been assisting her to date, José Luis Gutiérrez Aranguren.
But she will be able to interrogate witnesses and other parties charged with Asunta's murder.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com