The court of inquiry number 3 of Murcia yesterday assumed the proceedings opened for thirteen crimes of reckless homicide in the fire in the night leisure area of ??Atalayas, on October 1, in which 13 people died. The head of this body will be the one who will lead the investigation to clarify the facts and clear, if necessary, any criminal liability.
The superior prosecutor of Justice of the Region of Murcia, José Luis Díaz Manzanera, has declared to Ona Regional station that “we are in a very early phase of the process of a very complex case; but if we follow the route, the penalties that can be imposed, after a modification to the Penal Code, can reach nine years in prison”. He added that the responsibilities can fall not only on natural persons or companies, but also on the administrations for possible crimes of prevarication and omission, “since these are facts of enormous gravity”.
Currently, it is expected that the tasks of identifying the victims with DNA tests will be completed, once the autopsy has been concluded by the forensic doctors of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Region of Murcia, in order to inform the court on the causes and circumstances of the deaths. The court of inquiry number 3, competent for the investigation, maintains the decreed summary secrecy of the proceedings opened to clarify the incident.
The announcement made on Monday by the Urbanism officials of the Murcia City Council, both from the current and the past legislature, in which they confirmed that “the affected premises have been operating without a license since October 2022” , has generated in the Region a climate of tension, undisclosed questions and accusations between the Administration and the owners.
Data emerged yesterday, such as the fact that in March the Teatre nightclub, despite not having a license, passed a health inspection of which the municipal officials assured yesterday that “they have no record of it”. Municipal sources confirmed that “there is no information on this inspection in the City Council file”.
The Efe agency has had access to the minutes of the veterinary service official of the Murcia Consistory who signs the document after the inspection. This record states that “all the deficiencies detected in a previous visit, on February 9, 2023, have been resolved. The premises meet hygienic and sanitary conditions and I proceed to have them registered in the Autonomous Health Register of retail food establishments” . Municipal sources did not clarify anything new about the tragedy yesterday and only insisted that “responsibility will be cleared and we will go as far as it takes, whether we like it or not and whatever the consequences are.”
Meanwhile, María Dolores Abellán, legal representative of the Teatre nightclub, assured that, contrary to what the City Council claims, “we do have a license”, although she admitted that she has not seen these papers.
The owner of Fonda Milagros, the Colombian Juan Esteban Ramírez, told the Colombian broadcaster Blu Radio that he had “never been notified of the cessation of the disco’s activity”, and said that “it is illogical that it was a year ago that it was open, with live performances by well-known artists, without anyone preventing it”.
