Police have arrested three suspects after the attack on Spanish Vox party co-founder Vidal-Quadras. According to media reports, the alleged perpetrator is still on the run.
A week and a half after the attack on the politician and co-founder of the right-wing populist Vox party, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, three suspects were arrested in Spain. Two arrests were made in Lanjaron near Granada, the third in Fuengirola near Málaga, the authorities said. According to consistent media reports, there are two men and a woman. All three are Spanish citizens, it was said.
The alleged perpetrator, who according to eyewitnesses escaped on a motorcycle, was not among those arrested. The search for him continues. 78-year-old Vidal-Quadras was shot in the face on the street in Madrid on November 9th.
Is the Iranian regime behind the attack?
Vidal-Quadras survived the attack but is still in hospital. After initial treatment, he suggested that the attack could be related to his relations with the Iranian opposition. Because of the possibility of a terrorist attack, the State Court in Madrid has now taken over the investigation.
Vidal-Quadras is considered a sharp critic of his country’s left-wing government. Before founding the right-wing populist Vox at the end of 2013, he was a long-time member of the conservative People’s Party PP and at times its leader in Catalonia. Between 1999 and 2014, as a PP politician, he was a member of the EU Parliament and vice-president.