El Palo: Four years in prison for two Málaga footballers for stabbing a rival in the heart after a match | Spain

The Provincial Court of Malaga has sentenced two footballers from the El Palo B team to four years in prison for stabbing another from Alhaurín de la Torre CF, after a Third Regional match, the eighth category of this sport, in 2016. The Prosecutor’s Office initially requested 12 years for each, but the parties have finally reached an agreement after the first trial, held in 2021, was declared null and the defendants have already paid a large part of the compensation imposed on that occasion. . The victim suffered two wounds to the heart and underwent emergency surgery, which saved his life. It took him seven months to heal and even today he must make periodic visits to the hospital, since his scars can cause various heart problems such as arrhythmias.

The events occurred on March 20, 2016, when Alhaurín de la Torre CF (a town in the province) and El Palo B clashed in the latter’s field (El Palo is the largest neighborhood in the capital), San Ignacio, property of the Malaga City Council. During the match, the 21-year-old player from Paleño, Salvador A., ​​had numerous confrontations with the captain of the visiting team, Samuel, 24, whom he threatened to kill on several occasions. “I am going to kill you. Do you see the minutes? When the minutes pass I will kill you. See you outside. I will wait for you,” he told her on at least one occasion, as stated in the proven facts of the sentence. Later, during a set-piece action, he attacked him with a headbutt and received a yellow card. Shortly after, he was changed by his coach and went up to the stands, where he met with the second defendant, Moshine S., now 27 years old and then a teammate who had not been called up for that match, “both of them agreeing to give death to Samuel”, according to the Provincial Court of Malaga.

Suit B won that match and both local players were invited to come down from the stands to celebrate the victory. Salvador A. went directly to Samuel’s location. He grabbed him by the neck from behind, put him in a headlock and left him motionless, suffocating him and throwing him to the ground. At that moment, Moshine was running towards them and, although another teammate tried to stop him – and was stabbed as a result – he managed to reach him and stabbed the rival player twice in the left chest. Other fans also attacked the footballer while he was immobilized on the ground. The team delegates, field representatives, coaches and some players managed to separate the attackers, but Samuel was still “lying and defenseless on the ground.”

The player was quickly treated by health services. He had a 1.5 centimeter incision in his right ventricle and lost half a liter of blood. He received urgent surgical treatment which, if not performed, would have “certainly” caused his death. It took him 200 days to recover and even today he is subjected to periodic evaluations “because the scar in the pericardium and myocardium is susceptible to causing cardiac arrhythmias, aneurysmal dilations with the possibility of thrombus formation and pericardial adhesions that can cause constrictive pericarditis and heart failure,” as reflected in the sentence.

Retrial

The attackers were tried in February 2021. The Prosecutor’s Office then requested 12 years in prison for each one for the crime of attempted murder. During the trial, the players denied that they jumped onto the field with the intention of attacking the rival captain. The perpetrator of the stabbing then said that he did not have a knife, but rather a nail clipper, that he encountered a fight on the field of play and that he acted out of fear, something he regretted. The court, however, sentenced the two defendants to 10 years in prison each in April of that year, but the defense filed an appeal because they considered that the judge participated in the process with a “lack of impartiality.” The Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia agreed with them and ordered the trial to be repeated.

Before it was held again, the parties involved in the case – defense, prosecution and private prosecution – reached an agreement this September to leave the sentence at four years in prison, as announced this morning by the South Journal. In the case of Salvador as the author of a crime of serious threats related to a crime of attempted murder, exactly for which Moshine is found guilty. The main factor for the reduction of the sentence has been the mitigating factor of reparation for the damage, since both have deposited 77,300 euros in the judicial account as compensation for those injured. That is, the victim – who must be paid 72,624 euros – and, to a lesser extent, the person who tried to stop the perpetrator of the knife attacks and was also injured, who must receive 7,669 euros. The players still have 3,000 euros left to pay, jointly. The ruling exempts Club Deportivo El Palo and the Malaga City Council from civil liability.