The courts gave the go-ahead for euthanasia after rejecting several appeals by his victims, who insisted he should be brought to justice for his crimes.
Spanish prisons today euthanized a man who shot and wounded four people last December and then wounded himself in a shootout with police, leaving him paralyzed and begging to be allowed to die before his trial. .
The courts gave the go-ahead for euthanasia after rejecting several appeals by his victims, who insisted he should be brought to justice for his crimes.
The case reached the Supreme Court, but it refused to examine it, on the grounds that no fundamental rights were violated.
Spain legalized euthanasia a year ago. Previously, assisting someone to end their own life carried a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. According to El Pais newspaper, after the law came into effect on June 25, at least 172 people exercised their right to assisted suicide.
Disgruntled former security guard Eugen Sabau, 46, shot dead three of his colleagues – including a woman – inside the security company where he worked in the city of Tarragona. Then, in his attempt to escape, he injured a policeman.
When he barged into a house, carrying an entire arsenal, police officers burst in and immobilized him, shooting him several times. The “Pistolero de Tarragona”, as the Spanish media called him, was left a quadriplegic. Doctors were forced to amputate one of his legs while his wounds caused him chronic pain that could not be treated with painkillers and made his life unbearable, he claimed.
A court in Tarragona ruled that it was a fundamental right of Sabau to ask to be euthanized, considering his condition.
The prison services confirmed his death today, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.
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