Andalucía
Mari Luz Cortes father reaches 500,000 signatures on his petition for life imprisonment
By h.b.
May 23, 2008 - 8:14 AM

The family of the Huelva five year old, Mari Luz Cortés, who was allegedly killed in January by a local paedophile, Santiago del Valle, who should have been in jail at the time, has completed their task of amassing 500,000 signatures demanding that paedophiles found guilty be sentenced to live in prison.

Speaking in Valladolid after a tour across the country, Mari Luz’s father, Juan Cortés, said the family had put its heart into the campaign, but it had been worth it.
With the 500,000 signatures they can now go to Congress in Madrid to start new popular legislation.

Juan Cortés said that it was time to move on from good words to actual actions and that to ensure for once and all that offenders pay the price for their crimes and serve their prison terms to completion. He considers that any paedophile who kills his victims has no hope of re-insertion into society and should be kept behind bars until he dies.