A Pakistani man is sentenced to 36 years for murdering three elderly siblings in Spain over debts from a romance scam, with a separate murder trial pending.
MADRID: A Spanish court has sentenced a Pakistani man to 36 years in prison for murdering three elderly siblings over debts linked to an online romance scam.
A jury convicted Dilawar Hussain, 44, in October for the December 2023 killings in Morata de Tajuna, near Madrid.
The Madrid court sentenced him to 12 years for each murder, citing a “psychological alteration” as a mitigating factor.
Hussain has appealed the sentence.
He turned himself in to police after the siblings’ partially burned bodies were found in their home.
The victims, two sisters and their disabled brother in their 70s, had been beaten to death, possibly with an iron bar.
During his trial, Hussain asked for forgiveness, saying he had “heard voices” and “was not in my right mind”.
Neighbours told Spanish media the sisters believed they were in long-distance relationships with two US servicemen.
They were convinced one serviceman had died and the other needed money to access a multi-million-euro inheritance to share.
This fake romance scam caused the sisters to rack up significant debts.
The court ruling states Hussain, who rented a room in the house, lent the sisters about 60,000 euros which they never repaid.
This debt prompted him to attack one sister with a hammer in February 2023, months before the fatal year-end attack.
He received a two-year suspended sentence for that assault, as it was his first offence under Spanish law.
Hussain now faces a separate trial for allegedly murdering his 39-year-old Bulgarian cellmate in February 2024.
That alleged killing occurred while he was in a Madrid prison awaiting trial for the siblings’ deaths.
