MADRID – Spanish police announced on January 22 that they had arrested a Pakistani man suspected of murdering three brothers in their 70s over a debt allegedly related to an online romance scam.
According to a police statement, the suspect turned himself in on January 21 and “admitted his involvement in the incident related to the triple murder that took place in the house of Morata de Tajuna.”
According to judicial sources, the suspect was convicted of attacking one of the sisters with a hammer a year ago.
Police discovered the partially burned bodies of three people inside their home in a village about 35 kilometers southeast of Madrid on January 18.
Neighboring residents became alarmed after the two sisters and their disabled brother were not seen for a while, and police announced that their deaths were being treated as murders over suspected debts.
Police announced on January 22 that the man, known only as DHFC, was the “prime suspect” in the case because he had “previously caused bodily harm to one of the female victims last year.” , the court confirmed his arrest and conviction.
Spanish media, citing local residents, said the tragedy was likely related to a fake love affair online, with the sisters apparently starting a long-distance relationship with two American soldiers.
The two sisters were made to believe that one of them had died and the other needed money to transfer a multi-million euro inheritance, leaving the sisters in huge debt.
Initially, they started borrowing money from their neighbors.
convicted of hammer attack
During that time, the suspect reportedly lent the sisters at least 50,000 euros ($73,000), which they had not repaid, leading to a violent assault on one of the sisters. It is said that it caused
According to a statement from the Supreme Court of the Madrid region, the suspect was arrested in February 2023 at the home where he lived as a tenant.
He struck the victim in the head “at least three times with a hammer,” according to the verdict. And when she fell to her floor, he kicked her.
He was remanded in pre-trial detention until his trial in September, after which he was sentenced to two years in prison, a €2,900 fine and banned from coming within 500 million meters of the victim for two years and six months.
However, under Spanish law, first-time offenders sentenced to up to two years in prison automatically have their sentences suspended, so he was released after agreeing to pay compensation, the statement said.