Colombian visitor accused of starting Huesca wildfire, lawyers arrested in Málaga for stealing €1 million from deceased foreigners, last day of heat before significant temperature drop and more news from Spain on Wednesday August 19th.
Colombian visitor accused of starting Huesca wildfire
A court in the Aragonese city of Huesca has arrested and detained a Colombian citizen, without bail, for allegedly starting the serious forest fire that has affected multiple municipalities and ravaged 17,500 hectares.
Judge Jorge Zapatero Soria charged the detainee with an environmental crime, which is punishable by up to six years in prison.
Cameras in the area captured the suspect crouching down exactly at the point and time the fire started.
According to the court order, the Colombian national entered Spain on July 14th, 2026, just around a month before incident occurred and has no work or family ties here, so is considered a flight risk.
Málaga lawyers arrested for stealing €1 million from deceased foreigners
Spanish Civil Guard have broken up a suspected criminal organisation accused of stealing inheritances of dead foreign nationals in the Axarquía area of Málaga.
Three lawyers have been arrested while a further two remain in custody. The police are also investigating eleven others for crimes including fraud, document forgery, identity theft, embezzlement, money laundering, and belonging to a criminal organisation.
The investigation began after a complaint was filed by a bank’s fraud department, which reported several cash withdrawals from an account belonging to an elderly British citizen.
Police confirmed that the account holder had died, but that the account remained active. A lawyer from Nerja turned out to have full access to it after allegedly forging documents.
Spain confirms sex change does not annul gender-based violence convictions
Spain’s Supreme Court has ruled that a legal gender change does not have retroactive effects that would allow for the annulment of a prior conviction for gender-based violence.
In a recent ruling of a case involving gender-based violence, the High Court determined that the acts committed by the defendant, prior to the legal gender change, were carried out when he was legally male.
The appealed sentence was given by a Criminal Court in Castellón and upheld by the Provincial Court. The events in question involved an assault by a man against former partner, which occurred in April 2022, a year before he underwent gender reassignment surgery.
Thursday to see significant drop in temperatures across northern and southeastern Spain
Between Wednesday and Thursday, a mass of cooler air will move in from the west, causing a general drop in temperatures, which will be particularly pronounced in the north and southeast of the country. In these areas, maximum temperatures could fall between 6 and 10C in just 24 hours.
Specifically, Burgos will experience a 9C decrease, falling from 35C on Wednesday to 26C on Thursday. In León, the mercury is expected to drop from 33C on Wednesday to 23C on Thursday. In Galicia, the change will be seen most in Lugo, which will drop from 30C on Wednesday to 22C on Thursday.
