The National Police has arrested a man on Wednesday as the alleged perpetrator of the death of an eight-year-old boy, whose lifeless body was found with a strong blow to the head on an embankment in the Loma Colmenar neighborhood of Ceuta on December 19 .
His family had reported her missing the night before.
The person arrested is a "male, of legal age", with no family relationship with little Mohamed Abdeselam, according to sources close to the investigation.
After ruling out other possible implicates, the investigators have confirmed the initial hypothesis that he had been attacked by a possible "occasional prowler."
The person under investigation, a resident of a neighborhood adjacent to the child and with a criminal record, is currently in the Ceuta police station,
The investigations have focused on the hours before the minor's disappearance, that Sunday afternoon, after playing a soccer game in a sports area in his neighborhood and close to his home.
As well as in their closest environment, friends and family.
The testimonies of witnesses, the cameras in the area and the body of little Mohamed have served as a guide for the National Police investigators, who have meticulously ruled out suspects and hypotheses until they find who they consider to be the perpetrator of the crime, a man from 34 years old, Spanish and Ceuta, according to sources of the case.
Next to the body of the half-naked little boy, other clothes were found: a jacket hanging from a tree that was the one that caught the attention of the agents during the search, and that was there, "as if someone had wanted to point out the area", and also there was a toy gun.
This last object caused the first suspicions to focus, initially, on another man, who had been loitering in the area that afternoon, getting in and out of an abandoned vehicle and with that toy gun in hand.
However, subsequent police investigations ruled him out as the alleged murderer, since he had an alibi and the agents were able to verify it with the camera recordings.
For the moment, and in the absence of what the detainee declares, the motive for the terrible crime has not been disclosed.
The arrest comes almost a month after the family and a good number of friends and neighbors accompanied and buried the little boy in the Muslim cemetery of Sidi Embarek on December 21.
The investigations by the agents have not stopped in these weeks, in which they have been ruling out possible suspects one by one, collecting testimonies, analyzing the forensic evidence and the traces found on the body of the child, and viewing all the cameras in the area and surrounding areas, in order to focus the investigation.
Mohamed went to play with his friends that Sunday afternoon, in the soccer fields near his house, in an area of Ceuta close to the University Hospital, the El Príncipe neighborhood and the border with Morocco.
That day, he was "as a substitute player in the game", according to sources in the case, and Mohamed left the field for a while, but returned.
And then, a little later, he disappeared again without anyone hearing from him again, until the next day, when the worst omens were confirmed.
This Wednesday, after learning of the arrest, some of his relatives expressed "some relief" and "more relief because it is not anyone from our neighborhood," his father said through tears and before the television cameras, while asking " Justice".
