Cristóbal testifies in court that he passed the group at a safe distance and stopped to ask the reason for the insults they threw at him. “I didn’t flinch”
The person arrested for running over Murcian cyclist Alejandro Valverde and his companions last Saturday on the road connecting Javalí Nuevo to Alcantarilla testified before the head of the investigating judge number 3 of Murcia, who acted as a guard. Cristóbal, 69, a resident of La Ñora district and a retired vigilante, presented his version of what happened that Saturday morning to the judge. At around 12:30 p.m., the man was traveling in his car, a Citroën, Xsara model, along with his wife and sister-in-law, on the RM-560, when he encountered a group of about twenty cyclists. He waited several minutes behind the group until he saw the moment to pass the athletes.
He did, sources close to the suspect point to, taking up the entire opposite lane to leave the safety distance. Upon completing the maneuver and returning to the lane in the direction of travel, some cyclists reprimanded and insulted him. Cristóbal stopped to ask the reason for the insults and according to what he said, the athletes started throwing water bottles at the car, damaging the bodywork and windows. When he resumed the vehicle’s motion to flee and prevent them from continuing to throw objects at him and get attacked, “I was able to destabilize one of them off the bike and so they fell to the ground, but I didn’t reverse the car or run over someone,” he said.
What has been reported by the accused, confirmed by the lawyer defending him, Ariane Santiago, is far from what those affected by the outrage said. According to reports, the vehicle deliberately rammed into the cyclists after stopping and backing up, running over some runners, including Alejandro Valverde and his friend Pedro Moya. A motorist who saw the entire sequence went after the car and photographed the license plate. But there was no need to set up a search device, as the former vigilante turned himself in at Murcia’s local police headquarters in La Alberca early Saturday afternoon. From there, he was transferred to the Carmen Police Station, where he testified before the officers, to whom he gave the same testimony as the one he gave in court. He was released on Monday with charges.
The magistrate investigating the case understands that while there is evidence of a potential road safety crime, injuries and leaving the scene of the accident, “it is not appreciated that the requirements that would justify pre-trial detention, such as the risk on escaping, concealing or destroying evidence, or preventing criminal repetition. He also consented to the intervention of the vehicle he was driving and the revocation of his driver’s license as a precautionary measure.
Source: La Verdad
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