WHO LET HIM LOOSE?

Bail For Attempted Murder

ive Press this week they believe it was office not to demand he be kept in jail.

“He is a very bad guy, I don’t know why he is free,” the source in Malaga said. “He shouldn’t have been bailed after the Lago de los Tortugas shooting.”

Jail

Another senior Guardia source added: “He’s well known here and we think he should be in jail.

“From a civilian perspective it simply doesn’t make sense, but sometimes judges make these decisions for whatever reason.”

During his most recent arrest, on April 18, Harry only put the weapon down after officers fired a warning shot while shouting ‘police’ as they broke down his front door.

This time he is wanted on manslaughter charges over the death of 55-year-old Pisani at Olivia’s, owned by TOWIE TV star Elliott Wright, who runs Eduardos

By Walter Finch & Alberto Lejarraga

restaurant in Villamartin.

The father-of-two was said to have been punched and fell, banging his head against the corner of a table.

CCTV footage taken by police allegedly shows the 6 foot 5 (195 cm) doorman trying to restrain a punter, of a similar size. The man, believed to be Harry, broke free and threw the punch that resulted in Pisani’s death.

After being arrested and charged with the crime, he was granted conditional bail by a Fuengirola judge after prosecutors bizarrely did not named, was shot in the side, but managed to make his way to Marbella hospital, where he needed stitches.

When police arrested the six heavily-armed men, they seized a Skorpion sub-machine gun capable of firing 850 rounds per minute and four other guns. Also found were bulletproof vests, balaclavas, machetes, tasers, and a hatchet, together with GPS trackers and a mobilesignal blocker. Despite the clear serious danger to society, a court officer told the Olive Press this week that they cannot comment on cases due to data protection rules.

But he added: “It’s the judge’s decision. Why he decided that I don’t know.”

Leading lawyer, Antonio Flores, of Lawbird, in Marbella, insisted it was ‘very alarming’ and ‘seems like a monumental f*** up’ “It definitely seems like he should have been remanded in custody,” he told the Olive Press . “Now you have a very dangerous guy at large with two potential charges.”

Deadly

A PAIR of deadly butterfly vipers have been added to Terra Natura’s collection.

The African snakes will have their deadly venom tested to produce anti-bite treatments.

Terra Natura has an anti-venom bank for poisonous snakes of nearly all African, Asian and American species.

The species is native to the jungles of west and central Africa.

Coming down

WAITING lists for non-emergency surgeries have fallen to pre-pandemic levels in the Valencia region.

The average surgery wait in March was 77 days - 11 days lower than a year ago.

The reduction is thanks to outsourcing to private hospitals plus paying surgeons more overtime.

There are still 72,596 patients waiting for a procedure - up 3,482 on February's total.

THE lifeblood of south-east Spain is under threat after a Madrid decision to turn off the tap from the dwindling River Tagus.

The Valencia and Murcia regions have joined forces to oppose a 40% cut in the amount of water transferred from the Tagus to the local Jucar-Segura river basin.

The government ruling will limit the long-established massive water transfer from the north that helped turn the arid semi-desert of southeastern Spain into Europe's market garden.

The citrus fruit, water melons and other crops grown in the provinces of Murcia, Alicante and Almeria employs 100,000 people in a sector turning over €3 billion a year.

However, the serious drought Spain is suffering

OVER two-thirds of young people in the Valencian Community have told a survey that they cannot speak or understand any English. Meanwhile only one in 10 say they speak it well, they told an official INE study. Several schools and teachers say the lack of English retention is down to too few teachers in the language as well as too much emphasis on grammar and vocabulary.

They insist pupils should spend more time actually speaking the language.

Government decision to reduce water to south east threatens jobs, exports and the environment

By Walter Finch

means a massive cut in the usual annual transfer between the Tagus and Jucar river basins.

The agricultural association ASAJA accused Madrid of ‘failing to protect farmers’ this week.

“The government is launching a new water war against the Levante region,” insisted spokesman Jose Andreu. “They should instead be calling a debate.”

An economic study by academic and industry experts

Language barrier

One youngster, Pilar Ruiz, backed up the study saying: “Students are made to behave like robots performing the same exercises year after year. “Classes are boring and theory-based with little practice and no motivation to learn English in a fun way meaning we lose interest in learning, even though nowadays we need English for everything,“ she added.

found the reductions from 8.6 to 6m3/second would result in the loss of almost 5,500 jobs. It will cost a loss of €334 million annually in the Murcia region alone.

Kill

In the three provinces combined, the study found that the transfer cutbacks would kill almost 9,800 jobs and €524 million annually. But the repercussions extend beyond the region’s local economy; it is also threatening the intensive farming that feeds much of the continent.

It was an unenviable call by the government, as climate change is hitting Spain hard and there simply isn’t enough water to go round. The Tagus, the Iberian peninsula's longest river, is drying up to the extent that it is possible to cross its almost dry river bed by foot in summer.

Water’s the word, page 6

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.

Voted top expat paper in Spain OPINION

No justice

NEWS that a judge bailed a British gangster described as ‘extremely dangerous’ by police after he was already on bail for a separate murder attempt boggles the mind.

This is the man allegedly responsible for killing doorman Jose Pisani at a restaurant in Mijas last month. ‘Harry’ is known to police up and down the costas as a violent armed criminal with, at least, two incredibly serious charges hanging over him.

And a judge lets him go free to roam the coast causing all the mayhem he likes.

The message this sends is simple - and depressing: While the coast is seeing an upsurge in mafia activity, the judiciary is dragging its feet. Or worse.

It just isn’t right that the ordinary, law-abiding residents of this region should run the risk of having an encounter with one of these thugs.

Any one of us might go to the wrong restaurant or bar at the wrong time. Cross paths with the wrong character and undergo a potentially life-altering trauma. As Pisani did.

Why on earth would a judge or prosecutors allow men charged with attempted murder, who point guns at police and hold military-grade arsenals in their apartments, to go free?

Or did they not realise who they were dealing with?

When Harry was arrested for the second time in just two months, did the Policia Nacional not talk to the Guardia Civil?

What’s more, did Fuengirola court check if he was already on bail or had two passports?

There are only two possible answers to these questions and it is hard to know which is worse.

The Spanish legal system needs to get a grip and put the safety of its citizens and residents ahead of departmental rivalry or general incompetence. Or next time it could be a child or a mother in the crossfire!

PUBLISHER / EDITOR

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Alberto Lejarraga alberto@theolivepress.es

Jo Chipchase jo@theolivepress.es

John Culatto

ADMIN Victoria Humenyuk

Makarova (+34) 951 273 575 admin@theolivepress.es