The Court of Barcelona has ratified the decision of the Court of Instruction 7 to prosecute 46 National Police officers for charges during the celebration of the 1-O referendum in the city. In an order, the court rejects all the appeals that were presented against the prosecution of the police officers and validates the decision. The instructor processed them in January 2023, at the end of the investigation into the charges in different schools in the city. In this way, the court refuses to prosecute more agents – as requested by the accusations of Irídia, ANC and Òmnium – nor to file the case for the defendants, as requested by the defenses.
In the order that the court now confirms, the instructor concluded that at the IES Pau Claris “clearly those responsible for the police operation did not fulfill their obligations to supervise the actions of the agents under their responsibility, since, as has been said in resolutions “In previous cases in this court and by various orders of the Barcelona Court, the police action was clearly disproportionate in general.” In this school, the police officer who jumped from a staircase to kick a man has been identified and three officers who appear in videos throwing several people down the stairs are being prosecuted.
Regarding the Escola Mediterrània, where there were 20 complainants and among the injured was an 82-year-old man, the judge recounts from the images of the day: “The agents head directly towards the crowd and, without saying a word, warning or request, they begin to push the people gathered there, starting a violent situation of great confusion that increases to the point of seeing people pushed to the ground, a person with a bloody face and an agent hitting the people in the face with his defense. people who are already evicted.”
The judge has confirmed that the person responsible for the device failed to comply with police regulations by ordering action in this way, and adds that “in this school a real police charge was carried out, which due to the way it was carried out and its lack of announcement resulted in various harmful results.” He prosecutes the head of this device, and seven more police officers, among whom one stands out for his “especially serious action”: he hit several people already evicted in the face with his baton, kicked a person who was trying to get up from the ground and hit in the face of another person who was trying to help him.
In the Escoles Pies de Sant Antoni, the images show “a particularly violent and disproportionate action by the agents”, who hit without prior warning or any negotiation, says the judge. “Agents can be seen punching, kicking, grabbing people by the neck, throwing people to the ground and even hitting people with batons who are no longer at the school door or have an aggressive attitude towards the officials,” and the judge emphasizes that The team that intervened in this center is the same one that went to the IES Pau Claris and the Escola Mediterrània.
The judge prosecutes several police officers for their actions at the IES Víctor Català: one officer slapped a voter, two picked up a person by lifting him by the leg, and then one of them lifted an old man off the ground by pulling his ears. The instructor adds a “special mention” to the police officer who appears in a video punching a man in the face, and in addition to them he also prosecutes an agent for throwing a person to the ground and then hitting him, in addition to intentionally stepping on him. the hand of a person who is sitting on the floor.
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At the CEIP Prosperitat, 11 people reported injuries, including a man who reported “that he was thrown by the agents down some steps and suffered an injury to his ear that required stitches,” as his medical report shows. The man has filed a complaint against the police officer and the judge has decided to prosecute the agent and the head of the device at the school because “as can be seen in the recorded images, clear deficiencies can be seen in the actions with respect to the regulations and protocols.” police officers, and highlights that the police did not negotiate or warn of the charges but used force a few seconds after arriving.
“In some cases it is clearly unnecessary, taking into account the presence of people of various kinds in the crowd, without any aggressive attitude and with elderly people among them,” adds the judge about the use of police force.
At the CEIP Ramon Llull, where around twenty complaints were collected, the judge prosecutes a police officer for grabbing a person by the neck and dragging him. Ten people reported police actions at the El Guinardó CAP: the case is filed with the head of the device because there is no evidence that he gave a specific order for the charges, but the judge prosecutes a police officer for having intervened without first attempting mediation or doing an advert.
“The fact of approaching the crowd with a loudspeaker and, without interruption or waiting of any kind, beginning to violently throw people out of the place, in a way that is clearly harmful to the public, cannot at all be considered sufficient prior warning.” some people,” the judge argues when prosecuting him.
The person responsible for the device at the CEIP Els Horts is also being prosecuted for a “clearly disproportionate and unnecessary” action, and three other police officers are being prosecuted for allegedly injuring two women at the CEIP Marenostrum.
There are also police officers prosecuted for their actions at the CEIP Àgora, where the judge notes that there were charges using the baton “indiscriminately.”
In the CEIP Dolors Monserda, the judge prosecutes a police officer for allegedly injuring four people and two others for allegedly injuring one person, in addition to his hierarchical superior: “We are not dealing with isolated or specific cases, but rather the actions of “The investigated agents could not have gone unnoticed by said person and even so there is no evidence that he tried to avoid it or that he gave the appropriate orders so that the events did not occur,” justifies the judge.
Regarding the CEIP Pau Romeva, a police officer is being prosecuted for a “clearly intentional act, aimed solely at causing injuries to the complainant, allegedly in retaliation for a previous insult.”
At the Infant Jesús School, where there are five complainants, the judge highlights “the special circumstance that once the police action began, it was decided not to enter the school and no material was seized, the police officials interpreting that the order issued “by the TSJC it only authorized entry into publicly owned schools and not private ones, as is the case, realizing this circumstance when the action had already begun.” For this reason, the judge considers that the police action did not have a specific purpose, “which in a certain way represents gratuitous police action and, therefore, much less justifiable,” and prosecutes the person responsible for the operation and one of the agents.
Two crimes included in the amnesty law
EITHER. LOPEZ-FONSECA
The decision of the Provincial Court of Barcelona to confirm the prosecution of the 46 police officers for the crime of minor injuries or against moral integrity – both included among those who would be forgiven by the amnesty bill – dismantles part of the argument that the unions and associations of the National Police and the Civil Guard have so far used to oppose the project h
ead-on since the negotiations between the Government and Junts became known. In their criticism, the representatives of the agents assured that, as the text was written, these national police officers and 27 civil guards also prosecuted for injuries for their actions in schools in Girona during the illegal referendum in Catalonia on October 1, 2017 were left out. of the measure of grace and would be judged, while those who caused the altercations would be exonerated.
The unions – who also alleged that the simple approval of the rule would be a “disparagement” for the agents – were injured both that day and in the altercations that occurred in October 2019 after the ruling that condemned the independence leaders for the process was announced. – They had maintained this distrust of the bill until today, despite the fact that in a recent meeting with the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, he had assured them that no agent would be tried if the grace measure was finally approved. In fact, this Thursday, the Police Justice union (Jupol, the majority in the National Police) and the platform of agents from which it emerged, Police Salary Justice (Jusapol) held a protest near the Interior headquarters in Madrid, which fifty people have attended, to, along with various labor demands regarding retirement and salaries, insist on their rejection of the amnesty law. Its leaders criticized, on the one hand, that the amnesty law excluded prosecuted police officers and, at the same time, they demanded that they not be included in the law considering that they had not committed any crime.
Jupol and Jusapol are the two police organizations that lead the offensive against the Government of Pedro Sánchez, sometimes encouraged by right-wing parties. In the last two years, both together with Jucil (Justice for the Civil Guard), have organized three large demonstrations in Madrid, two of them to influence a political law, the reform of the Citizen Security law – known as the gag law. In its campaign for the union elections, where Jupol suffered a severe blow by losing half of its representation, the union took credit for the supposed success of having thwarted the reform of the gag law, when in reality it was the disagreement of the left-wing parties. in Congress, which led to the modification of the norm to failure.
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