The six British soldiers who starred in a fight at the La Vaca Loca restaurant in Costa Teguise in early February, in which they brutally attacked several customers and employees of the premises, have been released this Friday, after sitting in the dock.
The trial, held in the Criminal Court Number 1 of Arrecife, has not been held since an agreement had been reached, in which the defendants acknowledged the facts. Thus, four of them have been sentenced to six months in prison for crimes of injury and another five months for damage to the premises, while the other two defendants are sentenced to one and a half years in prison, also adding the crime of attack on authority and another crime of injury, since they attacked the Civil Guard officers who went to arrest them after the brawl, which occurred on February 9.
However, none of them will have to serve the prison sentence, as it does not exceed two years in prison. After their arrest, the judge had ordered provisional detention and spent until the time of trial, that is, four months in the Tahíche Penitentiary Center. This same Friday afternoon they will be released and only if they commit a new crime in the next three years would they have to enter prison for this reason.
Thus, they will be released from prison this same Friday afternoon and will be guarded to England by a Military Police Guard, as confirmed by the coordinator of the defense of the families of the convicts, Anthony Brown.
In addition, they will have to compensate the victims of the brutal beating, both for the physical damage caused and for the serious damage they left in the restaurant. Thus, the compensation amounts to an amount of more than 30,000 euros, which the defendants will have to pay to the victims.
"Exaggerated facts"
Anthony Brown also assured, at the doors of the Courts, that although they are satisfied to have reached an agreement of conformity, the process "has been complicated, because the facts have been greatly exaggerated." "A process of this type in England, would have been valid with a bond after the first appearance before the judge. But, in this case, the six defendants have spent four months in prison, and have been convicted," he criticized.
According to Brown, the six convicts "surely" will have to face an "own investigation" by the Army. "They will have to go through an administrative process and the facts will be investigated and they will take the necessary option, what the military codes dictate," he explained, while recalling that the military arrived in Lanzarote, after conducting operations in Afghanistan.
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