Benahavís murder suspect remanded in custody without bail as police probe alleged sexual offence

The suspect appeared before the judge after being transferred from Costa del Sol Hospital, where he had remained under police guard since his arrest.

He had cuts to his neck and arm after allegedly injuring himself while officers were taking him into custody.

Before the court, he exercised his constitutional right not to testify, according to sources at the High Court of Justice of Andalucía (TSJA).

In addition to the provisional homicide charge, the suspect is also under investigation for an alleged sexual offence. As a result, the case will be transferred in the coming days to the specialist court that deals with violence against women.

The transfer is based on two factors. The first is that investigators have established that the victim, from Hungary, and the suspect, from Argentina, were previously in a relationship in 2019.

After their relationship ended in 2019, the man returned to Argentina. He came back to Spain several months ago and re-established contact with the woman, who eventually rented him a room in the same house where she was later killed.

The second factor is that there is also evidence at the crime scene suggesting the woman may have been sexually assaulted: her body was found with two deep wounds to the neck, and her clothing, including her shirt and bra, had been torn in what investigators believe was a struggle.

Investigators are now trying to establish whether the pair had resumed their relationship, and whether the attack was triggered by jealousy on the suspect's part.

The Spanish government's representative in Andalucía initially ruled out treating the case as gender-based violence. However, if that assessment were to change, it would become the seventh gender-based killing recorded in Malaga province this year.

That figure would match the total for the whole of 2025, when Malaga recorded its highest annual number since records began in 2003 and topped the national rankings for this category of crime, a troubling pattern that has continued into 2026, with the province again ahead of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.