New trial for suspected Costa Rica conservationist killers
The new trial starts next Monday in Limon's criminal court and is expected to run for two months.
SAN JOS (AFP) - Costa Rica next week will retry seven men suspected in the 2013 murder of a conservationist and the rape of four Western women with him, justice officials said Monday.
The crime occurred on Moin Beach just to the north of Costa Rica s Caribbean seaside city of Limon in May 2013, and dealt a bad blow to the Central American country s tourism image.
Jairo Mora, a 26-year-old Costa Rican environmentalist working to protect sea turtle nests, was beaten unconscious, tied to a pick-up truck and dragged along the beach until he suffocated in the sand.
The four female volunteers with him -- three Americans and a Spaniard -- were tied up, held for hours and raped by the assailants.
An appeals court ordered the retrial after overturning an acquittal for the seven suspects in January 2015.
The judge in the original trial found serious errors in the police investigation: key evidence had mysteriously gone missing and the suspects telephone calls were incorrectly logged.
The new trial starts next Monday in Limon s criminal court and is expected to run for two months.
Prosecutors say the seven suspects, who were arrested in July 2013, belonged to a poaching gang that looted sea turtle nests and sold the eggs, which fetch around $1 each on the black market.
The gang, they say, viewed the conservation efforts as an obstacle to their illegal business.
