Vandals ‘tried to stop officer going to heaven’

20 April 2004

MADRID – Investigators said Tuesday those responsible for descrating the grave of a police officer could be part of a gang of Islamic extremists.

Francisco Javier Torronteras, a member of the elite GEO force, was killed when at least seven Islamic terrorists exploded a bomb at a flat in the Madrid suburb of Leganes 3 April.

Sources close the investigation told EFE news agency that unknown vandals smashed the gravestone, dug up the coffin and set fire to the officer’s remains.

Police investigating the incident, which has shocked Spain, said Tuesday they believed those responsible were part of the same terrorist gang as those who died.

They also believed that it could have been an attempt to stop  Torronteras ‘going to heaven’.

But they admitted they had no clear clues to who was behind the shocking attack.

Torronteras, who was 41 and married with two daughters, was an inspector in the elite unit.

He was buried at the Cementario Sur de Madrid the day after he was killed.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Spanish royal family and all the leaders of the main political parties.

Eleven other officers were injured, two of them seriously, when the terrorists set off the bomb.

The main ringleaders behind the 11 March massacre in Madrid were thought to have died when they blew themselves up.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news