The magistrate of the investigating court number 1 of Santiago has decreed provisional detention without bail for two of the detainees, Antonio Costa. Both, of Venezuelan nationality, are being investigated for a crime of homicide, supposedly involved in the attack that led to the death of the businessman in the early hours of last Tuesday when he was preparing to open his establishment.
The two men, who had been detained since the day of the events, were brought into court early this Thursday morning. He has also been summoned, an Italian national who witnessed the events but was not directly involved in the fight, according to his testimony and that of the market security guard.
For the two main defendants, the judge has ordered imprisonment, while the third person involved, who was released from police headquarters, has been released without precautionary measures. Both the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution, carried out by Costa’s family, who, according to the eyewitness, participated in the fight.
The family’s lawyer, Francisco Méndez, sees “contradictions” in the statements of the accused, who accuse each other, and “risk of flight,” Europa Press reports. The third person initially detained did not intervene directly in the attack, although he did accompany the other two arrested at the time of the crime. “Apparently, he stayed a little further behind,” reports the lawyer. The parties have asked that their situation of freedom be maintained, as confirmed by the instructor, Ana López Suevos.
The crime occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, when the butcher, well known in Santiago, went like every day to work at his position in the square. The main hypothesis is that the man caught the attention of a group of three young people who were returning from a party and were urinating near the venue. A fight broke out between two of them and the victim, who was hit several times and died at the scene.
The security forces arrested both the two main accused and the third man who witnessed the events on Tuesday, although he was later released. In addition, a fourth person was even identified who had been with them that night but who, as was confirmed during the investigation, was not in the market when the crime occurred. The preliminary autopsy report indicates that Costa died from a blow to the head and that he had other injuries. However, we are still waiting for the final report that will clarify more precisely what happened.
Visibly affected relatives of the victim have traveled to the Compostela courts. His daughter, Gloria Costa, spoke to the TVG cameras to ask “that justice be done” for her father and that his crime not go “unpunished.” “I have to see their faces and tell them that they wiped out an entire family,” said the victim’s daughter, through tears. “It is a great shame that a person so loved, so respected and so hard-working ends his life like this, there is no right for two thugs to come and take his life.” His lawyer also wanted to thank the family for their support and asked to “let the investigators work” so that “there is justice.”
