The murder of plastic surgeon Alexander Aslani, shot this Wednesday while undergoing a consultation at his clinic in Marbella, continues to leave unknowns. The National Police arrested an 18-year-old Swedish man less than 24 hours later as the alleged perpetrator of the events and is now focusing its efforts on determining who commissioned the crime or whether more people participated. The main hypotheses lead to the doctor's professional environment and, specifically, to a patient with whom he had a conflict.
Aslani, 57 years old, had built Cirumed on the Costa del Sol, a clinic with a marked international projection. The center itself promoted the doctor as a surgeon for celebrities, models and royalty. Among the people who have made public their professional relationship with him are television faces and influencers such as Claudia Bavel, Chloe Sims, Hannah Elizabeth and Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.
The crime
The crime occurred shortly before 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday at Cirumed Clinic, located in the Real Panorama urbanization, next to the A-7, east of Marbella. Aslani was with a client when an individual dressed in black, hooded and with his face hidden entered the center, went to the place where the doctor was and shot him several times at close range in the head.
The author left the facilities and escaped on a motorcycle to the Bello Horizonte area, using a secondary route instead of the busy A-7. The Police deployed an extensive device that afternoon, including a helicopter, although the suspect was not located until the next day.
Thus, on Thursday the National Police arrested an 18-year-old Swedish citizen as the alleged perpetrator of the homicide, who did not reside in Malaga. He had settled in a tourist apartment in Benalmádena, about 40 kilometers from the crime scene, and when he was arrested he was already preparing his escape. The suspect has acknowledged his responsibility and the agents do not rule out new arrests.
Who hired the hitman
The investigators frame the profile of the detainee in a phenomenon that security forces have been detecting for some time on the Costa del Sol: young people from northern Europe recruited to carry out murders in exchange for money and who travel to Spain, stay for a short time in tourist apartments and then leave the country. The Police are now investigating how the detainee arrived in Malaga, who contacted him and who financed the order.
Although the arrest allows investigators to put a face to the alleged perpetrator, it does not resolve the main question. The Police believe that the young man would have acted on behalf and are reconstructing Aslani's professional conflicts to locate the person who would have ordered his death.
The investigation has ruled out that the surgeon's murder was related to organized crime. The specialist in aesthetic operations had a wide portfolio of clients from different parts of the world, so it is being investigated whether any of them could be linked to illicit businesses.
Main hypotheses
The agents handle two scenarios, according to the Efe agency: that the conflict arose because a person had paid for an intervention, regretted it and demanded the money back, or that the patient had already been operated on and was unhappy with the result. Therefore, investigators are reviewing records and tracking the movements of already identified patients.
On the other hand, one of the lines of investigation would point to a patient on whom Aslani had refused to operate weeks before the murder because he considered that she was not in adequate emotional or psychological conditions to undergo the intervention, according to El Mundo. The doctor would have returned the money, but the woman reacted very aggressively and even threatened him, according to testimonies from those around the clinic cited by the newspaper.
However, El Español assures, citing police sources, that there is already a woman identified as a possible inducer. According to this version, the agents have reviewed Aslani's clientele and consider that a patient or people around her could have hired the hitman.
The threats that preceded the crime
Hours before the shooting, a patient sent several messages to Cirumed in which she was dissatisfied with a treatment, demanded her money back, and made threats. That woman's partner had already gone to the clinic a week earlier, where she expressed her discomfort and warned the staff.
The threats were not the only episode prior to the surgeon's murder. Weeks before the crime, someone threw stones and other objects against the facade of the clinic and the Police went to the scene, although at the moment it is not proven that both events are related.
Furthermore, disagreements with patients were not unprecedented in the surgeon's career, since in 2021 Aslani won a defamation lawsuit in the United Kingdom against a former patient and influencer who had published serious accusations against him and his professional practice. The High Court awarded him compensation of £40,000.
Patients from all over the world and famous faces
Alexander Aslani had developed a good part of his career on the Costa del Sol. Between 2008 and 2018 he directed the Plastic Surgery departments of the Quirón hospitals in Málaga and Marbella, a stage that he combined with the development of Cirumed. His clinic attributes more than 14,000 interventions, around 7,000 Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedures and patients from more than 40 countries. In 2016 he received an award from Medical & Corporate Livewire as the best plastic surgeon in Spain.
His specialty was body and buttock remodeling operations and he had developed the so-called Supercharged BBL, a technique that combines implants and fat transfer, on which he published scientific works. This specialization, together with the intensive use of social networks - she had around 200,000 followers on Instagram - provided her with an international clientele linked to the world of television, networks and modeling.
Among the cases is that of Claudia Bavel, who underwent buttock surgery with prostheses and breast implants. "My heart is broken. I was so excited to see you again when I traveled to Spain, I regret so much not having gone to that check-up before flying to the Dominican Republic. It was always a pride to be part of you and you to be part of me. Rest in peace," the model shared on social networks.
