The Investigating Court No. 3 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through order AJI 5/2025 issued by Judge Tomás Luis Martín Rodríguez, has decided to grant provisional release to VM, investigated for alleged serious injuries resulting from the fire that occurred in the early hours of July 16, 2025, in his home in El Tablero, in which Leticia, a minor, was seriously injured.
VM had been in pretrial detention since her arrest following the fire, which was initially considered malicious, with suspicions that the minor had been doused with a flammable liquid. However, subsequent medical reports dismissed this hypothesis, and the victim herself denied having been intentionally attacked.
The National Police Homicide Unit, in charge of the investigation, reconstructed the events and confirmed that the fire could have been accidental, a coincidence reinforced by the initial statement of the suspect and by the images recorded during the two men's exit from the building, where a gesture of cooperation and assistance between VM and a woman named L can be seen.
Technical reports from the Fire Department and the Forensic Police also point to a chance cause for the fire, although the court is keeping the investigation open to rule out any negligence attributable to the suspect. The judge points out that, according to Articles 502 et seq. of the Criminal Procedure Code, pretrial detention requires reasonable evidence of criminality and legitimate purposes, such as preventing escape, destruction of evidence, or repeated offenses.
Since the hypothesis of a malicious attack is currently disproved and the technical reports do not support intentional injuries, the prison sentence is considered disproportionate. Consequently, the order provides for provisional release with control measures, including:
Weekly court appearances or a ban on leaving the island, with notification to the ports and airports. The VM remains under investigation while the investigation continues to determine whether negligence may have been involved in the cause of the fire.
