Journalists in court over murder trial interview

A Madrid magistrate has formally accused the presenter of a popular Spanish television chat show and nine other journalists of possible "coercion" in connection with the interviewing of the wife of a pedophile who was convicted last week of murdering a five-year-old girl.

During the interview with Telecinco presenter Ana Rosa Quintana last month, Isabel García, who is mentally disabled and lives in a charitable home, accused her husband Santiago del Valle of having murdered Mari Luz Cortés.

García had also told the police that her husband had killed Mari Luz, but in testimony she gave during Del Valle's eventual trial, García accused her sister-in-law Rosa del Valle of the crime.

A court last Friday sentenced Santiago del Valle to 19 years in jail for the murder of Mari Luz who disappeared in January 2008, and whose body was later found in marshland close to Huelva in southern Spain. He was also handed three more years for sexual abuse, while his sister Rosa was jailed for nine years as an accomplice.

The Madrid judge ordered Quintana along with four other Telecinco journalists to appear before her for questioning on Wednesday. She also asked Telecinco to hand over a copy of the entire interview Quintana conducted with García.

The legal representative of Telecinco rival Antena 3 and four journalists of that television channel have also been subpoenaed by the magistrate.

García had appeared regularly on television after her husband became the prime suspect in the muchpublicized Mari Luz case. She will also appear before the Madrid court as an injured party in the proceedings.

(Published by El País - March 22, 2011)