The head of the Court of Instruction number 3 of Torrent, acting as guard, has decreed this Thursday afternoon the entry into provisional prison, communicated and without bail of four men detained for, allegedly, looting businesses in a shopping center in the town of Aldaia during the night of last Tuesday, when the area was being hit by Dana, which has caused dozens of fatalities in the province of Valencia.
The instructor has made this decision at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, after receiving statements from those arrested by videoconference, in telematic connection with the City of Justice of Valencia, where they had been transferred by the security forces due to the impossibility of taking them to the headquarters. Torrent court due to the effects of the floods.
The four people involved were arrested by the Civil Guard after being surprised in the surroundings of the shopping center with effects that they had supposedly just stolen from inside several businesses, such as sports equipment, mobile phones and a video game console, among others.
The judge indirectly attributes to those investigated, without prejudice to further qualification, an aggravated crime of robbery with force in an establishment open to the public for the commission of which an accident has been taken advantage of or the “existence of a general risk or danger for the community that has weakened the defense of the offended party or facilitating the unpunished commission of the crime.”
The judge considers that the detainees were able to take advantage of the impunity provided by the fact that the security forces were attending to the emergency situation generated by DANA to allegedly commit the robbery.
The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Valencia has warned that it will request preventive detention for all those arrested for robberies and robberies in businesses and houses affected by DANA.
In a statement, the prosecutor’s office reported this Thursday that “in these dramatic moments in which more than 155 people have lost their lives and thousands have lost all their property in a devastating DANA, robberies and thefts are taking place in situations of helplessness of the victims, with contempt for them and attempting impunity.”
Given this reality, “from every point morally and criminally intolerable, the Prosecutor’s Office is requesting the preventive detention of those detained for these behaviors under the protection of article 235.6 of the penal code (theft) and 240.2 and 241.4 (robberies).”
Precisely this Thursday, the National Police reported the arrest during Wednesday night of 39 people within the framework of a special crime prevention device launched around the commercial areas most affected by DANA in Valencia. The agents affirm in a statement that they have recovered a multitude of stolen objects in the towns of l’Horta Sud, the most affected by the flooding of the Poyo ravine, coming from Chiva.
The Civil Guard has also reported on a specific device to try to avoid this type of situations that, as they have explained, are perpetrated by both organized groups and individuals who take advantage of the situation in a behavior that, they have assured, is common in this type of catastrophes.
The residents of the towns of Paiporta, Catarroja, Alfafar and Sedaví claim to have witnessed acts of vandalism such as robberies in supermarkets and some of the destroyed homes during the night of Tuesday, after the first of the floods. “People took cell phones and even dragged hams,” says one of the neighbors consulted by this newspaper, who affirms that the thieves make the excuse that “the insurance pays for it.”
Some citizens decided to stand up to the groups that stole material from businesses, but they say, devastated, that they have not been listened to. Emergency sources affirm that they have sent police reinforcements in response to acts of vandalism in some points, such as the commercial areas of the affected municipalities. For the most part, neighbors highlight, acts of solidarity are taking place, such as residents who have given up their vehicles and material to remove debris or are making donations of clothing.
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