Spanish couple jailed for 18 years for murdering Asunta, 12, their adopted Chinese daughter found drugged and strangled in forest
A separated Spanish couple were sentenced on Thursday by a court to 18 years in prison for drugging and suffocating their 12-year-old adopted Chinese daughter, in a case that has drawn the attention of Beijing.
A nine-member jury in the northwestern region of Galicia on October 30 unanimously found the pair guilty of killing their daughter, Asunta Yong Fang Basterra Porto, after one of the most closely followed criminal trials in Spain in recent years.
The girl's body was found on a forest trail near the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela in September 2013.
Her parents had reported her missing a few hours before she was found, but the jury agreed with prosecutors that the pair had in fact conspired to kill their daughter and try to make it look like a random act of violence.
Prosecutors charged that the murder had been planned by both parents, but carried out by the mother.
At the time of the girl's death, the couple were separated but were raising their adopted daughter together.
