Spanish police said on Tuesday they had detained two people who kept
their 59-year-old brother locked up in "inhuman conditions" in a tiny,
roofless room adjoining their home.
The man, who suffers from
mental problems, was discovered naked in a tiny room without a roof in
the southern town of Dos Hermanas, on a filthy mattress next to which
bottles and buckets were laid out for him to go to the toilet, police
said.
Police in the town near Seville made the grisly
discovery when they brought his 76-year-old drunk brother back to his
home following complaints of disorderly behaviour.
"Once inside
the home, they saw a door at the end of a corridor closed with a
chain... and padlock," Spain's national police said in a statement.
"After
asking the man, he said that was where his brother lived, who had
mental problems and whom they kept isolated for his security." His
61-year-old sister also lived in the house and said she kept him fed
and cleaned and looked after his €1 000 monthly pension.
"Due to
the strange situation they were faced with, the agents asked both
siblings to open the... door to check the state of their brother,"
police said. "Once they went through, they came across another door closed by a wooden beam."
"After
going through both doors, they found a crumbling, narrow staircase that
went up to a type of dovecote," they added, before discovering the
brother in the tiny roofless hovel.
"His health and cleanliness were deplorable and the state of the place was completely insanitary." The man was taken to hospital, while his two siblings were detained.

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