Published
Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 11:19
- Seven others involved with the 2012 tragedy, in which five people died, have also been convicted.
Miguel Ángel Flores, the Spanish promoter whose 2012 event with Steve Aoki led to the deaths of five people, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that Flores and seven of the other 14 men involved in the Halloween tragedy were convicted of gross negligence, manslaughter and 29 counts of criminal injury. Flores, who was the head promoter of the Thriller Music Park event, was the only one to receive the maximum penalty. The remaining seven defendants in the case, who included medics, security staff and Madrid's former chief of police, were cleared of all charges.
From a court in Madrid, judges ruled that the venue, Madrid Arena, had been deliberately oversold by almost 6,000 tickets, and that the necessary safety and security measures were not in place to deal with such large numbers. Several fire exits, for example, were closed. The five girls—Katia Esteban, Cristina Arce, Rocío Oña, Belén Langdom and María Teresa Alonso—died from injuries sustained in a crowd crush, which, as Spin reported at the time, was the result of a stampede caused by the sudden lighting of a flare. It took the emergency services three hours to clear the venue.
One of the conditions of Flores's conviction is that he must cease all professional activity with regards to the organising or hosting of events. Today (September 28th), however, El Mundo ran a story confirming that Flores plans to reopen his Madrid club, Macumba, on October 14th. The club, which the article describes as "the jewel of his nightlife empire," closed after the Madrid Arena tragedy. Flores also heads up FSM Group, the events company behind defunct Madrid party Klubbers Day, which has hosted the likes of Ben Klock, Sven Väth, Carl Craig and Cassy.