Marin S. is allowed to die.

A Spanish court has granted a prisoner the right to active euthanasia for the first time.

Police shot the man when he resisted arrest last December.

He suffered a serious vertebral injury.

In a prison hospital in the Catalan city of Tarragona, Marin S., whom the press often calls just the "Pistolero of Tarragona", is awaiting trial and the verdict.

But a judge ruled that the right to choose one's own death with dignity took precedence over the completion of the trial.

This is a fundamental right, she stressed.

Hans Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb based in Madrid.

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The lawyer for one of the police officers injured by the shooter had requested that a decision on the wish for assisted suicide be made only after a conviction.

The 46-year-old perpetrator relies on the new Spanish law on active euthanasia.

Doctors and experts had checked and approved his death wish according to the new guidelines.

The former employee of a security service, who comes from Romania, wanted to take revenge on his bosses on December 14 for his dismissal.

They had "made his life hell," he accused them.

He stormed his employer's office, shot around and seriously injured three colleagues, and then the police officer as he fled.

He then holed up and said he wanted to kill himself.

But the officers arrested him after an exchange of gunfire with serious injuries.

Physicians decide, not judges

The judge in Tarragona made it clear that no court approval is required to have the wish for active euthanasia examined or to stop the application.

Only doctors and the responsible committee are responsible for these questions.

In the corresponding law there is no regulation for the accused.

The latest case sparked a new debate in Spain over the law on euthanasia, which only came into force on June 25, a year ago.

The regulation had been fought over for almost two decades.

The PP, the right-wing populist Vox party and two smaller parties voted against the ruling left-wing coalition's draft and appealed to the constitutional court, which has not yet decided.

Spain goes further than other countries in examining euthanasia claims.

The patient must be terminally ill or suffer from severe chronic disabilities that "the person experiences as unacceptable" and that cannot be alleviated by other means.

Mental illnesses are excluded.

If the patient is conscious, they must inform their doctor in writing twice every two weeks, who will then consult a specialist.

After that, an evaluation commission set up by the regional governments has to agree.

The patient then has to confirm again.

The health insurance companies bear the costs.

According to press reports, at least 171 patients took advantage of this option in the first year, including a German living on Ibiza.

Most of them, 60 in total, came from Catalonia.

According to research by the newspaper "El Mundo", a total of 336 applications were made, 18 of which have so far been rejected.

A total of 4,500 doctors and other medical personnel had refused to participate in euthanasia for reasons of conscience.