Spanish police suspected in immigrant's death: minister

Three Spanish policemen are suspected of involvement in the drowning of an illegal immigrant from Senegal as he tried to reach Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta, the interior minister said Monday.

Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba confirmed that prosecutors have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the death in September 2007.

The three policemen are suspected of bursting the lifebuoys used by four would-be illegal immigrants attempting to reach the coast of Ceuta, resulting in the drowning death of one of them, a 29-year-old Senegalese man, Spanish media said.

"I am convinced that the judicial investigation will allow us to know what happened," Rubalcaba told Spanish national radio.

If convicted, the three members of Spain's Civil Guard police force would face "criminal as well as disciplinary penalties", he said.

A report by a Spanish human rights organisation last week said that more than 900 would-be illegal immigrants died at sea trying to reach Spain in 2007.

Ceuta is a tiny Spanish enclave perched on the coast of north Africa. It and another Spanish enclave, Melilla, are both claimed by Morocco.

IC Publications