Health problems: Spanish Embassy attaché found dead

Cook claims diplomat was suffering from depression

ISLAMABAD: An employee of the Spanish Embassy in Pakistan was found dead in his F7-2 home on Thursday morning, the capital’s police said.

Officials say he committed suicide.

The City Zone, Superintendent Police (SP), Sheikh Zubair Ahmed, told The Express Tribune that 61- year-old Juan Jose Giner Pellicer was working as a chancellor, attaché at the Spainish Embassy.

The SP said the 61-year-old diplomat had been living alone in a house located in the Sector F-7/2 for the last six years. “Apparently, it is a clear case of suicide. He used his own 0.22-bore revolver to commit suicide,” SP Zubair said adding  that his body was discovered by his cook, Abdul Hameed, who used to go to the house every afternoon to prepare his meals.

Dr Imtiaz Hussain, head of the team of doctors at Polyclinic Hospital who performed the autopsy on Pellicer, told The Express Tribune that the deceased had placed the revolver in his mouth and fired. The bullet was lodged inside his head. “The body was quite healthy and did not bear any torture marks,” Dr Hussain added.

In view of the tragedy, Ambassador of Spain Carlos Morales cancelled a reception in the capital to mark the national day of Spain, which was scheduled for October 17. The ambassador said that a new date of the reception will be communicated in due course of time.

Longtime resident

Pellicer, had been living in Pakistan for the last 34 years, the police said. He was married twice with one of his wives from Spain and the other from Italy, but both had left him.  He was also an asthma patient.

Earlier, police had reached the spot and shifted his body to the Polyclinic hospital for an autopsy.

Hameed, in his initial statement to the police, said that he was with Pellicer for the last 34 years. The cook said that Pellicer was extremely worried for the past couple of weeks.

He added that Pellicer used to take anti-depressants and that he had been twice operated on for having problems with his pancreas.

Hameed, told the police that Pellicer had two wives but both of them had  left him. The diplomat had a son from his first wife, but he now lives with his mother in Spain. The cook added that he used to make breakfast for Pellicer and the attache  used to take lunch at the office.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2016.