Laurence Dollimore
THE father of a Spanish man accused of hiring a hitman to kill a far-right politician in Spain has insisted he is ‘totally innocent’.
Naraya Gomez, 26, has been sent to prison following the assassination attempt of 78-year-old Alejo Vidal-Quadras.
The founder of the far-right political party Vox was shot in the face outside his home in the upmarket neighbourhood of Salamanca in Madrid on November 9.
Naraya is accused of helping hire the contract killer, a wanted Frenchman of Tunisian origin, before travelling to a hotel in Madrid with him on the eve of the attack.
According to police, Gomez followed the Frenchman in his car on the day of the shooting.
After the deed was done, the killer, who is also wanted for a murder in Paris, dumped his motorbike and set it on fire, before being picked up by Gomez in his car to make his getaway.
According to police, Naraya’s blue hire car was seen on CCTV in Madrid’s Barrio Salamanca in the weeks running up to the attack, tracking Vidal-Quadras’s movements.
The same car was found illegally parked in Lanjaron this week, leading to the his arrest, alongside his British girlfriend Sasha Brooks.
Her involvement remains unclear but is said by the courts to be minimal.
She has been released on bail but her passport has been taken and she must report to the courts every 15 days while the probe continues.
Naraya’s father Sirio Gomez, a yoga master who lives in a new age commune just outside Lanjaron, insisted the charges were completely false.
He told the Olive Press: “My son is completely innocent, he is not a terrorist. He is a good boy, a vegetarian, spiritual and a pacifist.”
He said he last spoke to Naraya a few months ago and that he was excited to introduce his girlfriend Sasha to him.
He added: “He was not related to politics, he worked for Sasha’s mother’s business.
“He never converted to Islam, that is a lie, he is not a Muslim. He has judeo-Christian beliefs and an affinity with Israel!”
Sirio lives in the so-called community of Benificio, just a 20-minute drive from Lanjaron.
It’s known by locals as an ‘alternative community’, where people from across Europe come and go.
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner was known to have spent considerable time there and bought and sold drugs and other illegal goods in the area.
The theory put forward by police has left expats and locals in Lanjaron in shock.
One local Brit told the Olive Press: “They were a lovely couple, no one can believe it or understand it.
“There is no motivation for them to do something like this, Sasha comes from a good family.”
