Thirteen years after the mayor of a Costa Blanca town was shot in the face and left to die in hospital the trial of seven defendants has collapsed without any convictions

Alejandro Ponsoda was murdered by three bullets as he was pulling in to park at his home in Polop, just inland from Benidorm.

But the key defendant, Ponsada’s political successor Juan Cano, has now been acquitted by an Alicante jury along with six other defendants and alleged accomplices due to a lack of evidence.

Written by BayRadio