An Italian woman who ordered her boyfriend’s murder in March through a website and paid a hitman in bitcoin digital currency has been sentenced to six years imprisonment.
The 58-year-old woman was jailed on Friday by a Copenhagen court.
She had ordered the murder, which was never carried out in March, transferring 4.1 bitcoin, then worth about 4,000 dollars, to the hitman’s virtual wallet, the court found.
Bitcoin can be transferred electronically between users without an intermediary such as a bank, making it potentially attractive for buying illegal goods or services.
The court said: “The woman, who has lived in Denmark for 30 years, will be expelled after serving her sentence.’’
The intended murder victim was present at the court hearing north of Copenhagen and spoke with the woman after the verdict, the Danish public broadcaster said.
In a related development, suspected double murderer who eluded police capture in Italy for eight months was arrested in Spain on Friday, after a shoot-out with police that left three more people dead.
The Italian Carabinieri police said that Serbian Feher, known as “Igor the Russian,” was intercepted on Thursday near Teruel, about 300 kilometres west of Madrid.
The police said that two of the three victims from the ensuing shoot-out were officers of the Spanish Guardian Civil police which also confirmed the incident.
The convict said that the police were after him as they suspected him of committing armed assault at a farm last week, in which two people were injured.
According to the police, after Feher killed the two officers and a farmer who was assisting the police search, he fled on a pickup truck to escape and had an accident early on Friday.
The police said they were able to apprehend the convict thereafter.
The police said that at the time of the arrest, Feher had three guns with him, including two belonging to the police officers he murdered.
However, Spanish Interior Minister, Juan Zoido, skipped a cabinet meeting and went to the area while the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, sent condolences to his Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, over the incident.
In Italy, the 36-year-old Feher was wanted for the murder of a tobacconist during an April 1 robbery in Budrio, near Bologna, and of a volunteer park ranger in Portomaggiore, near Ferrara, on April 8.
Bologna Chief Prosecutor, Giuseppe Amato, said that at the height of Italian efforts to catch him, more than 1,000 police officers were deployed on the manhunt, at a huge expense.
He said that authorities suspected that the convict had absconded to Spain since the summer.
The prosecutor said: “Italy will ask for Feher’s extradition even if Spain will also want to try him for murder, and EU justice cooperation agency, Eurojust, might help resolve jurisdiction issues.
“We will have to coordinate with Spain; I can assure you that justice will definitely be done, both in Spain and in Italy.”