Audiencia Nacional orders compensation for man wrongfully accused in Meco murder

The Spanish Audiencia Nacional has ordered the State to pay 14,000 euros to Sergio Sáez as compensation for moral damages following a wrongful accusation in the 2019 murder of Miriam Vallejo.

Vallejo, 25, was killed in Meco, Madrid, in January 2019. Sáez, a former housemate of Vallejo’s roommate, was arrested and spent 126 days in prison. Despite a lack of evidence, he remained under investigation for four years and was required to appear in court 149 times.

Magistrates eventually exonerated Sáez, noting that geolocation data and mobile phone records proved he did not have the opportunity to commit the crime. The court's decision aims to provide “effective economic reparation of the moral damage” caused by the scale of the accusation and its intense media coverage.