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Memories of the victim: The accused faces the death penalty.
Photo: RICARDO ARDUENGO / AFP
Puerto Rican professional boxer Félix Verdejo has been charged with the murder of a pregnant woman.
The 2012 Olympic quarter-finalist and his alleged accomplice face the death penalty if convicted, according to the US District Attorney's Office in Puerto Rico.
Based on the investigation by the US Federal Police FBI, the two men are accused of kidnapping and killing an unborn child, among other things.
Both killed the woman deliberately and in a particularly cruel way, it said.
The 27-year-old Verdejo is said to have hired his alleged accomplice against payment.
60 femicides in just one year
According to media reports, citing the criminal complaint, the 27-year-old woman was the married boxer's lover.
Accordingly, the alleged perpetrators are said to have kidnapped her after telling Verdejo that she was pregnant by him.
The men are said to have thrown their victim tied up from a bridge into a lagoon in the capital San Juan and then shot them.
The police reported the woman missing on April 29, and her body was discovered in the lagoon last Saturday.
Verdejo later turned himself in to the police.
The criminal case about the successful boxer caused a stir in Puerto Rico in the past few days.
At the end of January, Puerto Rico's governor, Pedro Pierluisi, declared a state of emergency due to gender-based violence.
As a result, among other things, a special envoy was appointed, and more money is now flowing into combating violence against women.
Last year, the organization Observatory for Gender Equality (OEG) registered 60 femicides and six murders of transgender people in the Caribbean suburb of the US with a population of more than three million.
mxw / dpa
