Spain legalised euthanasia in June 2021
A paraplegic man accused of injuring his colleagues during an office shooting has been given the right to end his life and avoid trial, a Spanish court has ruled.
46-year-old Romanian security guard, Marin Eugen Sabau, has been accused of opening fire on his former colleagues at a security company in Tarragona, Eastern Spain, in December 2021. The attack, which was believed to have been caught on CCTV, ultimately caused critical injuries to three workers and one police officer before Sabau was shot in the spine by local authorities.
As a result, the alleged shooter became paraplegic and was deemed to have been left in a "serious and incurable" state.
Now, as per various outlets, a Spanish court has granted Sabau the right to end his own life via euthanasia under the ruling of a law that legalised the practice of assisted dying which was passed last year. The suspect may now avoid facing trial.
The court later admitted to not foreseeing the possibility that someone facing criminal charges may opt to request the services of the country's newly-passed euthanasia law.
For those unaware, euthanasia is the practice of helping someone with painful or incurable conditions to pass away peacefully.
According to the Spanish courts, euthanasia was a "fundamental right." However the decision was quickly met with rejection pleas from the lawyers representing the police officer that Sabau allegedly injured.
“The national court’s decision is erroneous,” explained the wounded police officer's lawyer, Antonio Bitos. “It hasn’t taken into account the victims’ suffering nor their dignity.”
Meanwhile, in a statement released from a prison hospital in July 2022, the accused Sabau stated that “I’m paraplegic. I’ve got 45 stitches in one hand and I can barely move my left arm. I’m full of screws and I can’t feel my chest.”
He also claimed that he was a victim of racism and exploitation at his former workplace, and his colleagues put him through "a living hell."
In its ruling, the Spanish court ultimately decided that Sabau had caused “pain as well as physical and moral damage to his victims.” However due to his current incapacitated state, he finds himself in “constant physical and psychological suffering without any possibility of relief and he faces the prospect of a very limited life”
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