The judge of the Court of Instruction Number 4 of Arrecife, who agreed this week to the provisional release of Carmen Delia, Veronica's stepmother, continues to see "rational indications of criminality" and, therefore, the accused must appear every Monday in the Courts of Arrecife. One of the reasons alleged by the magistrate in his order to release this woman is that the "social alarm" caused by this tragic event in Lanzarote has "disappeared".
In the order in which Carmen Delia's departure from the Tahíche prison is agreed, it is made clear that "from the proceedings to date, from the police investigations carried out and from the content of the statements made", the "existence of rational indications of criminality" against the accused is inferred "for the crimes of homicide, even in commission by omission, and desecration of corpses".
Carmen Delia was arrested for the disappearance of her stepdaughter, the young Veronica, whose mortal remains were found in a bag in a crack in the family home in Tinajo. The judge ordered her provisional imprisonment without bail on February 22, 2013 in order to "avoid her removal from the action of Justice and the concealment, alteration or destruction of relevant sources of evidence".
At the end of December last year, the Provincial Court rejected the appeal of Veronica's stepmother who requested her release. The defendant's lawyer again requested her release without bail on March 28, 2014, something that the Public Prosecutor's Office did not oppose, since the young woman's stepmother had been in provisional prison for more than a year.
However, the Prosecutor's Office requested that the precautionary measure of provisional imprisonment be replaced by the appearance of the accused every Monday in the Courts of Arrecife, a request that was finally agreed by the judge of the Court of Instruction Number 4 of Arrecife in this order. The only party that opposed the provisional release of Carmen Delia was the private prosecution "in view of the seriousness of the acts imputed to her".
Another "alternative measure"
The judge considers that, having elapsed sufficient time since the events, "there are other alternative measures" to provisional imprisonment that are "equally valid to achieve the procedural purposes of said precautionary measure". Therefore, he agrees to adopt the measures requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office, that is, that she appear every Monday in the Courts, because "they guarantee compliance with the aforementioned purposes".
In addition, this measure is "less harmful" to Carmen Delia's fundamental right to freedom. However, the judge warns that in case of non-compliance with this obligation by the accused, preventive detention could be adopted again. Carmen Delia also has the obligation to "immediately inform this Court of any changes of address she makes".