"If my partner hadn't gotten me out, I wouldn't have made it out alive." This is how one of the victims recounted the hell he experienced two years ago, when "two men and two women" entered the occupied house in Arrecife where he lived, where he was beaten and tied hand and foot, until the assailants left after setting fire to the house.
"I couldn't get out, I was unconscious," he recalled during the trial, which began this Tuesday before the First Section of the Provincial Court. It was another of the occupants of the house who pulled him out of the interior and saved his life, although that victim has not testified at the hearing because he could not be located.
However, the statement he made during the investigation phase was read at the trial, in which he identified the four defendants sitting on the bench, for whom the Prosecutor's Office is asking for between 22 and 23 years in prison for three counts of attempted murder, one of robbery with violence and intimidation in an inhabited house, and another of arson. According to his testimony, it was the two men who beat them and threatened them with knives, after forcing the door of the house and entering the room. Then, according to his version, one of them returned with a container and the other lit the fire. As for the two women who entered the house with them, he stated that he could not see what they were doing.
In addition, he stated that before leaving, the assailants "put something behind the door," because he couldn't open it and had to break it down, returning later to rescue his partner. As for the third person who was in the room, he managed to escape through a window that opened onto another roofless space.
"I only saw them nervous, but not aggressive at all"
This third victim also testified during the trial but, in his case, he tried to remove responsibility from the defendants. "They said something about money and drugs, but I don't really know what they were looking for," he began by saying. In addition, he assured that "I only saw them nervous, but not aggressive at all."
Asked if he saw his companions being beaten, especially the one who suffered the most serious injuries, he said that he did not remember, although he did point out that "there was a bit of a commotion" and that "he would have been hit by a blow."
He also agreed that they poured gasoline into the room, but stated that he did not know who it was. "I don't think they did it on purpose. They didn't know the reaction they were going to cause," he defended, after stating that he knew the four defendants previously, who used to go to the house to use drugs. "I hope they get the least amount of time possible, because I know they didn't do it consciously," he said, addressing the court.
In his case, he stated that he only suffered "some scratches," although one of his companions still has after-effects. In fact, after what happened, he had to be transferred to Madrid and remained in the ICU for two months. "I'm not doing well, I fall," the main victim explained when talking about his after-effects. And, as has been stated in the trial, he suffered burns "on 19% of his body", some of which were second degree, which posed a "life-threatening risk".
"There was neither money nor drugs"
According to his account, he was sleeping when he heard noises and saw the four defendants enter the room, where he was sleeping with the other two men who occupied the house. There they began to beat him, "asking for money and asking where the drugs were," although he assured that in the house "there was neither money nor drugs."
However, he did recognize that the house was "a smoking den" and that substances were usually sold, although he assured that he did not sell and that he only lived there. In his case, he knew one of the defendants because "she went to the house frequently" and even stated that he asked for a restraining order to be imposed on her. "But the police didn't even pay attention to me," he lamented.
Like him, the other victims also knew the defendants, as they claim that they went to the house as regular drug users. However, they have all assured that they did not sell them.
