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No pardon for Spaniard in Cuba car crash

Spain’s National Court said Wednesday it saw no reason to pardon a Spanish politician convicted in Cuba over a car crash that killed a leading dissident there.

Angel Carromero, a 27-year-old leading activist in the youth wing of Spain’s ruling Popular Party, is serving out his sentence in Spain after being convicted for manslaughter in Cuba.

Cuba’s courts sentenced him to four years in jail after his car hit a tree in July 2012, killing two passengers including a leading Cuban opposition figure, Oswaldo Paya.

Both Carromero and the family of the deceased opposition leader blame Cuban intelligence services for the crash.

Carlos Paya Sardinas, brother of Oswaldo Paya, told AFP this year that he had petitioned the Spanish government to pardon Carromero, saying “he is innocent”.

But in a “purely informative” opinion directed at the Spanish government, which has the power to grant a pardon, Spain’s National Court said: “We do not find any reason in law, impartiality or expedience to grant the pardon.”

Carromero was transferred from Cuba to a Spanish jail in December last year and a few weeks later the prisons service granted him relaxed “open conditions” meaning he does not have to remain incarcerated.