It is reported in the Spanish press that the Orihuela Council is to take legal action against la asociación de vecinos y comerciantes de Orihuela Costa (the Association of Residents and Traders of the Orihuela Costa, La Zenia), for alleged insults and slander against the mayor, Emilio Bascuñana, after accusing him, on their Facebook page, of being morally responsible for the death, last week, of the young British boy Kai Fawcett Bradshaw.
The association, however, qualified it’s statement, which has since been deleted, with a “perhaps” accusation that the mayor “is morally responsible” after noting that he had recently installed a number of defibrillators in Orihuela City “and they always forget the Coast, “the entry said.
The entry appeared on Wednesday, before it was known that 9 year old had died in Alicante General Hospital.
In the same entry it was also stated that “he could not be resuscitated, for the lack of a defibrillator, or the correct emergency equipment.”
The government team was also criticized in the post for the lack of completion of the Emergency Centre, work on which has been stopped for 9 years, stating that” the Coast has a large population of permanent residents but there are many shortfalls and little political will to rectify them.”
The entry in Facebook was erased a few hours after first being published following calls by several councillors to the President of “La Zenia Residents Movement”, Felix Arenas.
The deputy spokesman of the government, Rafael Almagro, was the most critical in denouncing the publication, even announcing on his personal Facebook page details of the legal action that the Council had already started against the La Zenia association, pointing in harsh terms at the individual who had written the post saying that “to take advantage of such a lamentable event is wrong and immoral.”
The Association President, Felix Arenas, who is also a friend of the family of the deceased child, said of the council action “it will give us an opportunity, to provide documents and witnesses showing exactly what happened last Tuesday because by stating the truth we are not being dishonest.”
He added that the family of Kai, and many residents of Orihuela Costa also want the matter to be heard in court, “so that there can be a judicial investigation, and those responsible can be named”.
Arenas said he was “fed up with the lies of Almagro, and accused the government team of “lying to residents of the Coast.”
