A man who appeared in court this morning after being arrested by officers investigating the murder of West Belfast man John George has been released on bail by an investigating judge pending an ongoing criminal probe.
Officials signalled after releasing him that investigators suspected at least one other person was involved in the crime although no new arrests have yet taken place.
A spokesman for the Valencian Community’s High Court of Justice, which covers the town of Torrevieja where the suspect appeared before a judge, said this afternoon: “The head of Torrevieja’s Court of Instruction Number Two, acting as a duty court, has decided to release with precautionary measures the man arrested in relationship to the homicide of a northern Irish citizen whose body was discovered in Rojales on Tuesday.
“The decision was taken in accordance with the criteria of public prosecutors. The judge is currently attributing to him a crime of homicide as an accomplice or by aiding and abetting the crime.
“His bail conditions include the obligations to sign on at court every fortnight and hand in his passport and he is also banned from leaving Spain. The court will continue with investigations with the intention of fully solving this case.”
The man who appeared at court on Friday, who has not been named, has now been placed under official investigation by the courts as part of a continuing homicide probe. In other words he is now an ‘investigado’ under Spanish law.
Any formal charges would not be laid until shortly before trial.