Spanish city honors migrants who tried to prevent homophobic attack

The Spanish city of A Coruna has awarded the status of adoptive sons to two Senegalese migrants who risked themselves to help a gay man whose 2021 murder shocked the country.

Ibrahima Diack and Magatte N'Diaye attempted to intervene to save Samuel Luiz as a group of men viciously kicked and punched him outside a nightclub in the northwestern city in July 2021.

The subsequent death in hospital of Luiz, 24, sparked nationwide protests and condemnation from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Diack and N'Diaye were irregular migrants at the time but have since gained work and residency permits after recognition of their heroism.

A Coruna's mayor Ines Rey paid tribute to their "altruism" in a ceremony at the town hall where Diack and N'Diaye received a standing ovation and plaques honoring their achievement.

"That two undocumented migrants were the only ones who physically risked themselves to help the victim of a pack thirsting for horror leaves much food for thought and a series of lessons," Rey said.

N'Diaye said "we are not heroes, we did what we had to do", citing the importance of the values of respect, love and solidarity he learned in Senegal.

Diack agreed that his upbringing shaped his actions. "I was born in a family that doesn't have much... but they gave me many things more valuable than money," he said. "They gave me respect, education and above all values."

A jury in November found four men guilty of Luiz's murder and that the main accused, who received a jail term of 24 years, shouted homophobic insults at him during the attack.

Mali, Senegal and Morocco represent the most common nationalities of the tens of thousands of migrants who reach Spain illegally every year, the vast majority by boat to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic.