Dog walker finds man's body in shallow grave in Águilas del Teide

[Janet]

Police have confirmed the discovery in Águilas del Teide, Chayofa, of the body of a man who had been tied up, and whose head was covered by a bag and taped up. The gruesome discovery was made yesterday afternoon by a dog walker who spotted a hand sticking out from what seems to have been a shallow grave disturbed by the recent storm. From the condition of the body death is said to have been quite recent, and the man also appeared to have been beaten. An autopsy is being carried out to try to establish the exact cause of death while police investigate to try to clarify the events behind the incident. JA

[Janet]

The dead man is said to be a 30-40-year-old Russian, and the Guardia Civil says that the principal suspect is a "very large" Moldavian who works as a taxi driver; normally, though, he drives a black high-range vehicle. Police have activated controls at ports and airports to detain him should he attempt to leave the island, saying that he is likely to be armed and dangerous. One theory is that the death resulted from score-settling between eastern European mafias operating in Tenerife. JA

[Janet]

The Moldavian suspect is still at large, and there is now controversy over what appears to have been a Guardia Civil order for the force to withhold information from the National and Local police forces here because "it's our operation". An alleged recording of the instruction has been released, and naturally other police forces are concerned that they could have been endangered through lack of information being passed to them, but the recording has not yet been confirmed as genuine. Meanwhile, the Moldavian is said to have been living with the ex-partner of his Russian victim. JA

[Janet]

The dead man has been identified as 52-year-old Andreyu Timofeev, and the Moldavian suspect as Eugenio Berezenco. Police say that they have arrested Timofeev's 47-year-old ex-partner who, as reported previously, was currently living with the Moldavian suspected of his killing. Berezenco remains at large, but the woman's arrest after the police have completed their analysis of texts and emails, indicates that the current hypothesis is that the killing was a "crime of passion". JA

[Janet]

Police have arrested the Moldavian they were seeking for the suspected murder of the Russian man whose body was found in a shallow grave in Águilas del Teide at the end of November. Eugeniu Berezenko, 21 years of age, is now in Guardia Civil custody in Playa de las Américas. More details will follow shortly. JA

[Michael]

Police have arrested the Moldavian they were seeking for the suspected murder of the Russian man whose body was found in a shallow grave in Águilas del Teide at the end of November. Eugeniu Berezenko, 21 years of age, is now in Guardia Civil custody in Playa de las Américas. More details will follow shortly. JA

What's the average when it comes to murder sentences in that part of the world?

[Janet]

30-40 years or so ... 40 is the maximum a prisoner can be kept in, I believe.

[Janet]

 It transpires that the Moldavian gave himself up to the police after two people protecting him had been arrested. Police say that he had been detained previously by the Guardia Civil's Organized Crime Unit as an illegal immigrant suspected of involvement in money-laundering over taxi licences but that with the aid of a good lawyer, a judge was persuaded to release him. More details in due course, I'm sure. JA