Malaga court reopens investigation into death of man Tasered by police in Torremolinos

Investigation

The court has revoked the provisional closure of the 'Haitam' case and demanded a "thorough and effective investigation" of the police intervention

María José Díaz Alcalá

The provincial court of Malaga has ordered the reopening of the legal case concerning the death of Haitam Mejri, the 35-year-old man who died last December in a Torremolinos call shop after being Tasered by the National Police.

The provincial court upheld the appeal filed by the deceased's family, ruling that the case requires a thorough and effective investigation to dispel any doubts about the police actions, overturning the provisional dismissal ordered by the Torremolinos court.

The panel of judges emphasise in the ruling that in this case there are "contradictory expert reports regarding the cause of death".

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• Investigation

  • The investigating judge in Torremolinos dismissed the case based on the official autopsy report from the institute of legal medicine (IML) in Malaga, which concluded that Haitam's death was caused by cardiorespiratory arrest due to an adverse reaction to the consumption of toxic substances: a state known as 'agitated delirium'.

    The autopsy report states that Haitam suffered from a pre-existing heart condition due to chronic drug use. The court considered that the official report provided more comprehensive conclusions and that the officers' actions were not causally related to the death.

    Conversely, the victim's family's defence submitted an alternative expert report, describing up to 86 injuries. This second forensic assessment argued that Haitam died from cardiorespiratory arrest secondary to cardiorespiratory failure "as a result of multiple traumas involving restraint, immobilisation and high pressure on the neck, chest and all four limbs, with the use of irritants and multiple prolonged and repeated electric shocks with a Taser".

    These completely contradictory medical opinions and the security camera footage have prompted the Malaga court to rule premature the closure of the proceedings decreed in the first instance.

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