Laurence Dollimore
THE family of Agnese Klavina are launching an appeal to the Supreme Court after her alleged kidnappers avoided jail time.
It comes after expats Westley Capper, 41, and pal Craig Porter, 37, were handed suspended sentences of two years and six months respectively on charges of coercion.
The Marbella-based pals were also ordered to pay €10,000 to the family of Agnese and one third of their legal costs.
The charge of kidnapping – for which the British pair faced 12 years in prison – could not be proved, leaving Latvia Klavina’s family ‘stunned’.
While the judge agreed that they had conspired to force her into their car following a late night at a Marbella nightclub, the prosecution was unable to prove why she has not been seen since.
This was despite a large, heavy bag being seen taken onto Capper’s father’s boat the next day, as well as other circumstantial evidence.
“The family are very disappointed,” Fernando Scornik Gerstein, representing the Klavinas, told the Olive Press.
“They are heartbroken at losing a daughter, sister, and the two people they believe are responsible have got such light sentences.
“Meanwhile the bouncer who clearly helps force Agnese into their car got nothing.”
The Madrid-based lawyer said he strongly disagreed with the judge’s interpretation of the law.
“We will be appealing this verdict to the Supreme Court this week,” he added.
He had asked the court for long sentences and €85,000 in compensation for their alleged role in the disappearance of the Latvian waitress, who was 30 when she vanished from Aqwa Myst nightclub in Puerto Banus in 2014.
Capper, whose father owns a number of multi-million euro villas in the Marbella hills, is set to appeal the coercion conviction,
Robert Taylor, the lawyer of privately-educated Capper, who attended Aloha College, told the Olive Press: “He had no intention to take Agnese Klavina against her will and she entered my client’s car of her own volition.”
He added: “I can also confirm that my client intends to appeal against his conviction for coercion.”
Meanwhile, Capper has a second trial for manslaughter later this year, over the death of expat waitress Fatima Dorado, 40.
He mowed the Bolivian mother down in his Bentley, after drinking and taking drugs, before driving off and getting a curry, as revealed by the Olive Press in 2016.
During the recent trial, the court was shown security camera footage from Aqwa Mist showing Klavina being seemingly forced into a Mercedes S63 AMG occupied by Capper and Porter.
The footage is the last known sighting of the young woman before her disappearance, and according to the prosecution, it showed ‘that she was being driven against her will.’
Prosecutors also used footage from La Duquesa port, in Manilva, which showed Capper and two others ‘carrying a large red suitcase’ onto Capper’s father’s Giofill III yacht.
Police boarded the ship and found a blonde hair and other traces of DNA, however they did not match that of Klavina.
