Provisional prison for the accused of the death of a woman in Esplugues

BarcelonaThe alleged perpetrator of the death of a woman in Esplugues de Llobregat last Saturday will enter provisional prison, communicated and without bail, as reported this Tuesday by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). The investigating court has opened a case against this man for the crimes ofmurder of a 41-year-old Chinese woman in broad daylight.

The events took place at eleven in the morning on Joan Miró street. The detainee stabbed the woman several times in the back and then cut her throat. The police investigation has not been able to determine that they knew each other: everything indicates that she was a randomly chosen victim.

The man also threatened several neighbors with a knife and slightly injured another, and the investigating court number 3 of Esplugues de Llobregat also attributes to the accused the crimes of attempted homicide, assault, serious threats, and damage. According to what ARA has been able to learn, the accused has only answered his lawyer's questions.

In the hours after the crime, there was speculation about a possible religious or terrorist motive behind it; a point that the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, denied on Monday: "With the information we currently have, it cannot be concluded that it was jihadism, in any way." The specialists from the General Information Commissariat – who are in charge of the fight against terrorism – did not detect initial indications of a jihadist motive, and the case is being handled by homicide investigators and not by counter-terrorism.

Tuesday's judicial response also distances the idea of terrorism: if the events had been framed within a jihadist attack, the court of Esplugues would most likely have recused itself in favor of the National High Court, which is competent to judge such cases.