The judge investigates a complaint of torture by one of the biggest pimps, found dead in his cell

The criminal in question is Cristian Sandulache, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison with his brother Sebastián for a crime of human trafficking. Sandulache was found dead in his cell in the prison’s isolation module. Cordoba on September 1stwhere he had been transferred ten days previously from Huelva to continue serving his sentence.

In a decree dated September 24, to which EL ESPAÑOL had access, the magistrate reports to the Scientific Police unit of the Police Station. Police National of Cordoba to send to the court the list of all the photographs taken in the ocular inspection report for the death of Sandulache, as well as during the performance of his autopsy.

He also asked the private prosecutor’s office to send him the photographs provided in his brief. He also requests that all be sent to Institute of Legal Medicine of Córdoba prepare a report indicating whether the injuries found on the body of the deceased were noted during the removal of the body or the autopsy and whether they were assessed in the autopsy report issued.

The complaint on which the judge is now opening proceedings predates Sandulache’s death. Despite this, the judge for the moment lowers the theory to which the family and the Sandulache defense cling, namely that he was murdered by workers from the center.

The judge affirms that “the line described by the private prosecution” is based on “simple suspicions or hypotheses” which could influence “the intervention of those responsible for the penitentiary center” in the death of the pimp. These “suspicions,” said the judge, “at the moment contradicts the information which, as evidence, does not indicate for the moment to the intervention of third parties in the death by hanging of the deceased”.

This line highlighted by the prosecution “could hardly have anything to do with not letting the deceased sleep due to disturbances caused by other inmates or suspecting that they were putting something in the food that he decided not to eat,” the order adds.

“Only a possible request for compensation, beyond the criminal prosecution of the incident”, based on the understanding that the detainee had decided to end his life due to the pressure situation suffered as a result of this which is defined as torture, might make sense. in the matter before this court,” the resolution states.

Despite these comments, the judge ordered the execution of procedures deemed appropriate “for the verification of the crime and the investigation and identification of possible culprits” of these alleged tortures, before the appearance of the body.

The complaint

As announced by EL ESPAÑOL, Sandulache’s death took place last Sunday September 1st. The criminal’s wife learned around nine o’clock in the evening that he had been found dead, hanging in the bedroom. His category at the penitentiary was FIES 2, which includes inmates from the world of organized crime.

In the absence of definitive autopsy results, coroners have provisionally concluded that death was caused by hanging. The body had around the neck fractured thyroid glandas EL ESPAÑOL learned from sources close to the investigation.

However, his family wants this death to be thoroughly investigated because upon his arrival at the prison, he himself Cristian Sandulache He assured them that they were poisoning him and that someone was trying to end his life. For the moment, his brothers have already appeared as private prosecutors in the investigation into the death of this detainee.

Investigation

According to documents this newspaper was able to access, in the week between his arrival and his death, his family filed up to four legal complaints and one written complaint.

In these documents, the various judicial authorities (investigating courts and prison surveillance courts) were informed that, according to the testimony of the deceased, “was being poisoned by officials of the Córdoba Penitentiary Center”.

This is indicated in a document presented by the Sandulache lawyers to the Córdoba court, in charge of the investigation. In this document, the lawyer Rafael Cotta Gallardo insisted that the detainee had “requested judicial protection and authorization to be examined by foreign doctor in the penitentiary center.

This fear for his physical integrity and the treatment reserved for him was brought to the attention of the authorities through successive writings and complaints throughout the week during which he stayed in this new center. Upon arriving at the prison, Sandulache’s attorney received a call from the family. They asked the lawyer to go see Cristian, because he had called them to tell them that “He feared for his life, saying they wanted to kill him”.

“They poisoned him”

On Saturday August 24, the lawyer went to the Andalusian prison. He noticed that Cristian was thinner. He said he stopped eating. He said that since his arrival the day before, he “suffered humiliation from officials”, who did not allow him to “communicate with his relatives”, who “poisoned him with substances contained in his food” and that they were doing it. did not allow him to “sleep in his cell”, “because he was told”screams“and they put”noises” which prevented him from “resting”. He also could not “access money to buy food”, according to the prisoner’s complaint included in the document presented by Cotto Gallardo.

For all this, he requested “judicial protection”. Sandulache carried out these demonstrations “in the presence of five officials from the center who, visibly interference of attorney-client communication, remained present in the call rooms,” the complaint adds.

Faced with this situation, Sandulache asked his legal representative to file a complaint. This is what the lawyer did, notably before the investigating court number 3 of Cordoba, on duty. In briefs he filed before his client was found dead, the lawyer asked the judge to conduct a medical examination of the youngest Sandulache brother, to detect whether he had been inoculated with some kind of vaccine . harmful substance for your health.

Prison sources They reject the family’s accusations. They also deny having committed ill-treatment towards the prisoner found dead. They point out that there is no proof of these complaints. They also deny that any employee of the center poisoned or administered any substance to Cristian Sandulache. “No one wanted to kill him. In prisons, no one drugs anyone.”

The Sandulache clan

Cristian and Sebastián Sandulache were the leaders of a Romanian clan dedicated to human trafficking. They ran two brothels Oviedo and they had been trafficking people for several years since their Romania native. They recruited girls whom they deceived into promising them jobs as waitresses in Asturias.

Once they arrived in Spain, they were forced into prostitution. And that’s not all: they tortured them in the most horrible way, as they told the court. From beating them to the point of forcing them to eat bills if they didn’t bring in a lot of money after the marathon work days. One night, several young women had to eat 700 euros in small denominations because they had obtained little collection.

For years, the Sandulaches imposed a regime of terror on their prostitutes. They had them enslaved, their passports confiscatedthey almost didn’t let them leave the house they lived in overcrowded, they robbed them and also threatened to kill their relatives in Romania if they did not pay the debt they had contracted with them after falling into their networks.

Eventually, several victims managed to escape and report the affair. One of them did so by writing an SOS message on a napkin as she was about to board the plane that was taking her from Bucharest to Madrid.

In 2019, the Supreme Court confirmed his sentence to 55 years in prisonas well as the 53-year prison sentence against his brother Sebastián, for three offenses of trafficking in human beings in competition with three offenses of coercive prostitution, seven of coercive prostitution and another crime against workers’ rights, money laundering and personal injury. Only Cristian Sandulache was convicted of this latest crime.