Killing of Nuno Ribeiro

Nuno Miguel Ribeiro de Araujo, a 17-year-old openly homosexual Portuguese boy, was beat to death by two Spaniard youths aged 20 and 22, Sergi Ruiz Lázaro and Domingo López Acedo, in an alley in Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra, in the early morning of April 14, 2000.^[1][2][3] This crime had a media repercussion in the country because of the brutal violence they exercised and the homophobic motivation of the crime.

The two assailants were sentenced to five and sixteen years respectively by the Tribunal de Corts. On October 24, 2001, the criminal division of the High Court upheld the conviction.^[4] In May 2002, the Constitutional Court partially overturned the conviction as it did not consider that it violated the dignity of the person because, at that time, homophobia was not criminalized. Therefore, the sentence of Sergi Ruiz and Domingo Lopez was reduced by one year, and they were convicted only for murder.^[5]

This murder motivated the creation of the association Som com Som to start the fight for LGBT rights in Andorra.^[6]

References

1. "L'autòpsia revela que Nuno va rebre setze cops de peu al cap". VilaWeb.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2021-08-25.
2. "L'homicida de Nuno demana al Superior una rebaixa de setze a sis anys de presó". VilaWeb.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2021-08-25.
3. "Sentència del Tribunal Constitucional relativa als recursos d'empara 2001-23 i 25-RE, de 9-5-2002". vLex (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-10-06.
4. "L'homofòbia no està penalitzada a Andorra segons el Constitucional". VilaWeb.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved 2021-08-25.
5. RTVA, Andorra Difusió. "Reportatge: viure l'homosexualitat en petits nuclis com Andorra | Andorra Difusió". www.andorradifusio.ad (in Catalan). Retrieved 2021-08-25.
6. Vella, Alexandra Muratet, Andorra la (2020-09-27). "Un crim impactant". DiariAndorra.ad (in Catalan). Retrieved 2021-08-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)