The Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has essentially confirmed the sentence issued by the Sixth Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas in the proceedings for the assault on a home in San Bartolomé de Lanzarote in January 2016, in which the perpetrators, a total of eight people including those directly responsible for the criminal action and collaborators, posed as agents of the State security forces and bodies to torture the owner of the home and steal his belongings.
In its resolution, of which Magistrate Antonio Doreste is the rapporteur, the court dismisses the appeals filed by three of the convicted individuals and upholds the sentences imposed for attempted murder, robbery with unlawful detention, possession of prohibited weapons, and membership in a criminal organization. The sentences now confirmed range from five to 18 years in prison.
The sentence emphasizes the extreme seriousness of the events, describing that the main victim "was tortured for two hours," with repeated blows, fractures in different parts of the body, electric shocks to the genitals, and other acts of particular cruelty. It also states that the events were carried out by a group "with an organizational structure on the island for the concerted perpetration of criminal acts."
The court considers it proven that the attack was not improvised, but planned with prior surveillance, division of roles, use of disguises to conceal identity, rental of vehicles, and employment of tools to immobilize the victims. In line with this, the resolution states that the defendants "meet, group together, and conspire to prepare and plan the coordinated execution of future crimes."
The Chamber also upholds the conviction for attempted murder by rejecting that the events could be reduced to simple injuries, understanding that the violence used allowed for the appreciation of eventual homicidal intent. It also confirms the conviction for criminal organization by appreciating stability, division of roles, and a long-term commitment.
Partial estimation
Instead, regarding one of the convicted, the Court partially upholds the appeal because the charge of belonging to a criminal organization was withdrawn at trial, so that conviction could not be maintained. Consequently, the revocation affects exclusively that crime and the associated penalty, with the rest of the convictions being upheld. The TSJC confirms the validity of the proven facts of the Provincial Court's ruling. According to this, four of the accused, acting by prior and common agreement, assaulted the victim's house around 08:30 on January 18, 2016, **posing as members of the State Security Forces and Corps**, simulating a search and seizure for the alleged commission of a money laundering offense. **Using extreme violence** (they tied up the owner of the house and his partner, and tortured him, applying electric shocks to his genitals, among other torments), the assailants managed to get the owner of the house to open the safe for them, and from it they extracted valuables (three watches and some jewelry) before fleeing. The beating that the owner of the house was a victim of was of such magnitude that **he died two months later**. The appellate court does not hesitate to describe the imposed penalties as "lenient" compared to the seriousness of the events, and emphasizes that one of the accused, here convicted solely as an accomplice, "possesses no less than eleven convictions, one of them for murder." "And more leniency is observed," it adds, "in the case of the head of the organization, with seven prior convictions, including for the same murder as the former."