Three Moroccans are on trial in Tenerife for a violent knife attack on a tram.
In Tenerife, three Moroccans are on trial for the brutal knife attack on a compatriot in a tram, which occurred in August 2024.
It wasn't just a scuffle, but a real atrocity. Three people attacked the guy, and all he could do was cover himself with his hands to avoid getting even more stab wounds. That's how one of the witnesses described the event in court.
On Monday, the case of three young men from Morocco was heard in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. They are accused of attempted murder. In August 2024, they brutally stabbed their compatriot with a knife on a tram in Tenerife. The guy survived, but the scars on his face and neck will forever remind him of that horror.
The prosecutor is demanding 10 years in prison for each of the attackers. Since all three are illegally in Spain, the prosecutor wants them deported after serving part of their sentence. The defense did not dispute the fact of the attack itself, because the court showed a video from the tram and the Las Mantecas stop. The video clearly shows how everything happened around 10:00 PM on August 12, 2024, and what weapons were used.
The lawyers insist that their clients, if found guilty, should be tried not for attempted murder, but for causing grievous bodily harm. One of the lawyers even stated that his client did not participate in the attack in the tram car, but only joined the fight at the stop.
All three defendants say they attacked the guy because a few days earlier he had robbed their house, which they had squatted near the Las Mantecas stop. That evening, they drank, took pills, and took the tram to La Laguna to buy something for dinner. They claim they met the victim by chance. One of the attackers said that the victim is "known for his cruelty" and "always carries knives with him." He assures that it was the victim who first pulled out a knife, which he managed to take away. Then he and a friend started beating the guy, and the third stood by the tram door. He added that in the heat of the fight, another attacker took the knife from him and began to "scratch" the victim. "He didn't stab him, he just scratched him," he assured.
But a witness who tried to stop the attackers told a different version. He assured that "one of the attackers pulled out a small knife, like for peeling vegetables, and the other two held the victim." He claims that he recognized the attackers at the police station without any doubt. "One of them, the most aggressive, was wearing glasses and holding a knife," the witness said.
The accused, who was pointed out by the witness, interrupted him and denied wearing glasses that day. The witness replied that he might have lost them during the fight, but he clearly remembers that he was wearing glasses. The judge ordered the accused to be silent, and the witness not to argue with him. The fact is that the accused himself said that he "needed glasses" with large diopters to see well. And he admitted that due to poor eyesight, he could not see well what exactly was happening during the fight.
The victim, who is currently in prison for other crimes, testified in handcuffs, as did his attackers. He said that he only knows these people by face, because they beat him last summer. His face was disfigured with scars, but when asked by the lawyer about one of the scars, he admitted that it was inflicted not by these defendants, but by another person in a fight that took place a few days before the attack on the tram.