The judicial authority in charge of the duty court in San Cristóbal de La Laguna agreed this Thursday, February 13, to the provisional, communicated and without bail imprisonment of three alleged pateras skippers, as alleged perpetrators of eight counts of murder and several counts of injury, degrading treatment, crimes against the rights of foreign citizens and failure to provide assistance.
The proceedings are related to what allegedly happened on board a patera that arrived on December 28, 2024, on the island of El Hierro. Based on the evidence gathered so far, the judicial authority (Instruction n.º 1 of San Cristóbal de La Laguna) has indications that the people who lost their lives on the boat by violent methods were selected to be murdered because of their nationality, different from that of the alleged skippers.
The Court of La Laguna declared itself competent to hear the proceedings exclusively in its capacity as a duty court, because the people under investigation were arrested in that judicial district, as they were in a detention center in the municipality (Las Raíces). In the coming days, the judicial body will refrain from hearing the case in favor of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of Valverde de El Hierro.