British woman arrested in connection with shooting of Spanish politician

A British woman is said to be among three suspects arrested in connection with the shooting of a Spanish former politician.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot in the wealthy neighbourhood of Salamanca in central Madrid earlier this month by a gunman wearing a helmet who was riding behind a driver on a motorbike.

The 78-year-old conservative politician survived the attack as the bullet passed through his jaw.

He is still in hospital recovering from a double fracture of the jaw, the hospital said on Tuesday, but is making “good progress”.

An anti-terrorism court is in charge of the investigation.

Spanish police on Tuesday said they had detained three people as part of its investigation into the shooting. The National Police force's press department said two suspects were detained in the city of Lanjaron in southern Spain and the third in the city of Fuengirola.

Spanish state news agency EFE and other media outlets said none of the three are suspected of having fired the shot that hit Mr Vidal-Quadras.

EFE said the two people arrested in Lanjaron were a Spanish man and his partner, a British woman. A man detained in Fuengirola, also a Spaniard, was arrested in connection with a motorbike used in the shooting, the news agency reported.

The woman and her partner was being held in Lanjaron in the Alpujarras mountain region in southern Spain.

Police are looking into whether they have links with foreign countries.

Mr Vidal-Quadras is former head of the centre-right People’s Party (PP) in Catalonia and a founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party. He was also the European Parliament vice-president between 2009 and 2014.

The Paris-based Iranian opposition group, the Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, described him as a staunch ally.

In October 2022, Mr Vidal-Quadras was included in an Iranian sanctions list in retaliation for European Union sanctions imposed on the country following the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

The Iranian sanctions included a visa and entry ban on Mr Vidal-Quadras and seizure of any property in Iran.

Ms Amini’s death triggered months of nationwide protests that represented one of the fiercest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979.

Associated Press contributed to this report