Whole Spanish village questioned on mayor murder

MADRID, Jan 19 (Reuters) Police are questioning the entire population of a village in northern Spain after their mayor was shot dead, Spanish media have reported.

For 12 years Miguel Grima had been mayor of Fago, population 37, and was a hate figure for many say reports. Last week, on his way back from a meeting of local mayors in the mountainous northern region of Aragon, he was ambushed in his car, shot at point blank range and dumped in a ditch outside the village.

Police, who said details of the case are secret, suspect Grima was murdered by a villager or villagers who bore a grudge.

They have taken DNA samples from some in Fago, which had become deeply divided over Grima, who stood for the opposition conservative Popular Party.

During his tenure, the mayor banned the age-old practice of driving cattle through Fago's cobble-stoned lanes, taxed a bar for putting tables outside and stopped the building of a hotel that would rival his own.

Some reports say he was alleged to have stopped new residents registering as voters, fearing a reverse at elections.

Newspaper El Pais said that in a region where hunting is popular, investigators were concentrating their search on those with shotgun licences, making almost every villager a suspect.

''Revenge is a dish best served cold,'' one resident told El Pais, anonymously.

REUTERS PB DS1548