The Spaniard who was convicted in the middle of last year for the death of filmmaker Wouter van Luijn (34) in Mallorca has had his sentence reduced on appeal.
The provincial court in Palma acquitted Adrián HF on Friday of robbery with violence. As a result, his prison sentence was reduced from 6.5 years to three years, local media reported.
According to the court, which partially upheld the appeal of lawyer Gaspar Oliver, it has not been proven that the attack in which the victim died on the night of July 13, 2018 took place during a robbery. The ruling maintains the sentence imposed on HF for culpable homicide due to the blows he inflicted on Van Luijn. He died from both the injuries sustained during the attack and from heavy alcohol consumption in combination with a dilated vein in the brain (aneurysm). The Dutchman died shortly after arriving at the hospital as a result of a brain haemorrhage.
At first instance, the court found it proven in July last year that there was a clear link between the violence used and the death of the victim. Without the blows to the head, Van Luijn would still have been alive, she stated in the verdict. The filmmaker, who was on holiday in Mallorca, took a taxi to the Son Banya district with two other people in the early hours of July 13, 2018, to buy drugs. The suspect and two or three other people who were not identified approached him and punched him several times in the head, face and neck. Van Luijn fell to the ground and became unconscious. He died two hours after the attack.
Murder
The Public Prosecution Service in Palma had demanded eight years in prison against HF. Van Luijn’s father, who was on Mallorca with his son for a short holiday, demanded 27 years in prison as a private prosecutor for murder. The family has always disputed that Van Luijn had an aneurysm. The father also accused a second person, with whom the defendant had taken Van Luijn to the hospital in a car, of complicity, for which he demanded almost 6 years in prison. The judge said he had no evidence against the other suspect and that two other possible people involved had not been identified.
Watch our news videos in the playlist below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss anything from the stars.
Yes, I want free unlimited access
Tags: Penalty halved perpetrator deadly attack Dutch filmmaker Mallorca
