Liqueurs Killed 51

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31564, 29 December 1967, Page 7

Liqueurs Killed 51

I (N Z P A-Reuter —Copyright) t ORENSE (Northwest Spain), Dec. 28. I Fifty-one people died, some went mad | before their deaths, I ana others were | blinded by liqueurs ■ made from methylated I spirits, a court at ■ Orense was told. Eleven Spaniards were senitenced yesterday to prison 'terms ranging to 20 years for their part in the manufacture and sale of the poisonous liqueurs during 1962 and 1963 They were freed pending the hearing of an appeal. J One voung witness said his wife had died after drinking 'from a bottle of liqueur he had given her on their wed- ' ding day. :| Eight of those accused of ■crimes against public health. 'and rash negligence, were sentenced to between 12 and '2O years imprisonment. One 1 was jailed for four years, and 1 the other two for a year.

The court was told that' about 51 people died and several were blinded in Spain, the Canary Islands and Morocco from drinking liqueurs made with the spirits. ■ Three-week Trial During the three-week trial, one of the longest in Spanish 'legal history, the prosecutor stated that the accused did I not intend to cause harm, but [sought to make financial proifit by using the cheap spirits j instead of more expensive alcohol. An Orense liqueur-making factory was also ordered to pay damages of 19,500,000 pesetas to the relatives of the dead, and to people blinded by the spirits. The heaviest sentence went to Rogelio Aguiar, who, according to the prosecution, bought methylated spirits marked “unfit for human con'sumption” from a Madrid fac itory, and sold large quant, ties at cheap rates to Orense liqueur manufacturers.

Aguiar, who has been in jail since 1963, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. His wife received a 12-year seti-

tence for helping him in the business, and for making liqueurs with methylated spirits at home. Dogs Died Roman Lago Cabral, the owner of an Orense liqueur factory, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. The prosecution said he had bought 11.220 gallons of the spirits from Aguiar in 1962. and used it to make liqueurs. He was alleged to have tried them out on two dogs, both of which died, and then to have continued using the spirits in his factory. During the trial, 11 widows and widowers described the blinding and subsequent agonising deaths of their husbands or wives.

The case came to light in 1963, when a Canary Islands pharmacist analysed a bottle of liqueur after the death of a neighbour. Deaths in Dakar, Sweden and Germany in 1962 also ap peared to have been connected with the poisonous drinks, the prosecution stated. A consignment sent to New York was analysed by customs and l banned.