Cuenca murder suspect to be extradited to Spain
Friday, September 4, 2015 @ 12:09 AM
ROMANIA has agreed to extradite the suspected murderer of two young women in the province of Cuenca, one of whom was his ex-girlfriend.
Sergio Morate's family has disowned him and have refused to contact him since his former partner, Ukrainian national Marina Okarynska and her friend Laura del Hoyo, both in their mid-20s, were found bludgeoned to death on a riverbed.
They had gone to his house to collect Marina's belongings.
Morate fled Spain via the French border in Portbau (Girona province) and was found and arrested several days later in Lugoj, a town of around 50,000 inhabitants in Romania.
His green Seat Ibiza has been impounded and will be inspected by Spain's National Police.
The suspect has maintained he is innocent, that there is no proof he is the killer and that he would not get a fair trial in Spain due to the 'media circus' surrounding the incident.
He claims his phone has been tapped and entire conversations he had with his mother 'ended up on TV the next day'.
But his appeal against extradition has been rejected by judge Iulian Dragomir on the grounds it is 'unfounded', and that only the Spanish justice system is permitted to decide whether or not there is sufficient evidence to convict the defendant.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com