Spanish prison authorities on Tuesday euthanised a man who had shot and wounded four people in December and was subsequently wounded in a shootout with the police, rendering him paralyzed and begging to be allowed to die while awaiting trial.
Courts have allowed the man's assisted death after rejecting several appeals by his victims who argued that he had to face justice. The case even reached the Constitutional Court, which refused to deliberate on it, saying there has been no violation of fundamental rights.
Spain legalized euthanasia just over a year ago, preceding which helping someone to end their life had carried a jail term of up to 10 years. According to El Pais newspaper, in the year since the law came into on June 25, at least 172 people had used the right to assisted death.
Disgruntled former security guard Eugen Sabau, 46, shot three of his colleagues, including a woman, at the security services firm where he had worked in the northeastern city of Tarragona, and then wounded a police officer while making his escape.
After he barricaded himself in a house with an arsenal of weapons, a tactical police unit stormed the place, shooting Sabau several times.
The "Gunslinger of Tarragona", as the Spanish media referred to him, was left a tetraplegic, had one leg amputated, and the wounds caused chronic pain that could not be treated with painkillers due to his fragile state and which he said made his further existence unbearable.
A court in Tarragona ruled that it was Sabau's fundamental right to request euthanasia considering these circumstances.
Penitentiary authorities confirmed Sabau's death on Tuesday, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.
The prison authorities were unavailable for comment and Sabau's lawyer did not comment.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley and Andrei Khalip; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
