The family of Isak Andic, the founder of the fashion chain Mango, have insisted on his son’s innocence after media reports suggested he was a potential suspect in the billionaire’s death.
Andic died last December, aged 71, after apparently falling 100 metres down a ravine while hiking at Montserrat, near Barcelona, with his son, Jonathan. His death prompted tributes from politicians, journalists and the fashion world.
A hermitage in Montserrat. Photograph: Aagafapaperiapunta/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Although an initial investigation by Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, had regarded it as an accident, officers and judicial sources told El País and La Vanguardia the case was now being treated as a possible homicide.
In a report published on Thursday evening, El País said sources had described Jonathan’s account of what happened as “inconsistent”, and said his father’s partner, the golfer Estefanía Knuth, had told investigators “the relationship between father and son was bad”.
The paper said police had found no direct or definitive evidence to explain what happened in the ravine, but had “come across a series of clues which, when taken together, had led them to move away from the idea of a mere accident and toward the possibility of a homicide”.
Isak Andic opened his first Mango store in 1984. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
La Vanguardia reported that the judge overseeing the case changed Jonathan’s official status last month from witness to possible suspect.
The Andic family issued a statement to the media saying: “The Andic family has not and will not comment on Isak Andic’s death in all these months.
“However, they wish to show their respect for the ongoing investigations and will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities, as they have done so far. They are also confident that this process will be concluded as soon as possible and that Jonathan Andic’s innocence will be proved.”
A spokesperson for the Mossos d’Esquadra said the force could not comment because the case was still under judicial investigation. A spokesperson for the Catalan courts service said the judicial investigation was secret and “is not – nor has it been – directed against any specific person”.
skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to Headlines Europe
A digest of the morning’s main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
Andic, who was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in Istanbul in 1953, emigrated to Catalonia with his relatives in the late 1960s and started selling T-shirts to fellow high school students.
He progressed to running a wholesale business and sold clothes in street markets before opening his first Mango store in 1984.
“He saw that we needed colour, style,” Mango’s global retail director, César de Vicente, told Agence France-Presse in March last year.
Andic soon opened dozens more stores around Europe and “realised that having the same name, having the same brand in all the shops, would make the concept much stronger”, added de Vicente.