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Spanish couple sentenced to 18 years for murdering adopted Chinese daughter

Xinhua, November 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Spanish couple accused of murdering their adopted Chinese daughter, Asunta Basterra, were sentenced to 18 years in prison, local media reported on Thursday.

The court, located in the northwestern region of Galicia, confirmed the sentence on Thursday, around two weeks after the nine-person jury had found the former couple guilty.

The nine-person jury had found the two, Rosario Porto and Alfonso Basterra, guilty of murdering the 12-year-old child, who was adopted when she was a baby and was described as very intelligent.

Lawyers for the accused had said at the time they would appeal against the sentence. They consider there were many evidences that could not be proved.

Prosecution lawyers alleged that the couple had planned to murder Asunta, although Porto would have been the one who killed her.

The child would have been drugged with a sedative called Orfidal she had been given on and off for a period of around three months before her death, and then Porta would have asphyxiated her. Her body appeared in the woods, in a town close to the city of Santiago de Compostela. Endit