The police report said that “after finishing the 1:20 a.m. patrol” there were two National Police officers who went to Daniel Jiménez’s cell, under police custody at a National Police station in Algeciras (Cádiz) early in the morning. on June 1, 2020. However, in his witness statement in the court that has reopened the case, forced last January by the Constitutional Court, it has been revealed that this time slot “never took place” and the cell remained closed when Two other agents arrived to enter another detainee, and they were the ones who unsuccessfully performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
Based on the tests carried out now, there is “the conviction that Daniel’s death should have and could have been avoided.” That is why the private prosecution, on behalf of his family, and the public, on behalf of the Association of Gypsy Jurists, have requested the indictment of both agents for the alleged commission of reckless homicide and for the crimes of false testimony, falsehood documentary, concealment, obstruction of justice and prevarication.
Five anomalies surrounding Daniel’s death
ElDiario.es Andalucía already reported that June 2020 of the five “anomalies” that the family had noticed regarding Daniel’s death and on which they insisted before the guarantee court of Spain, which for the first time faced the action. of judges in the face of a violent death in police custody. His family, of Gypsy ethnicity, never shared the official version of Daniel’s suicide in the police cells, in circumstances similar to that of the young Moroccan Imad Eraffali, 23, who died in January of that year 2020 in similar circumstances. Daniel’s family has maintained throughout the process that his death had taken place a few hours after speaking with his father by phone to inform him that he would be released the following morning.
“The agents, who stated in the police report that they had fulfilled their duty of surveillance, have acknowledged in their statement before the judge that they did not complete their shift at the corresponding time. The security cameras confirm this,” sources from the association tell this newspaper. The testimonial statements of the agents who were guarding Daniel that night have not made it possible to clarify that the surveillance rounds that they had to do every thirty minutes were carried out, in accordance with the provisions of the protocol of action in the custody areas of detainees when there is no It had security cameras in the cells, as was then the case at the Algeciras police station.
Daniel’s family also argued before the TC that, five years before his death, the Secretary of State for Security had issued an instruction that required the installation of cameras in all police station cells. elDiario.es Andaucía recently revealed that this “urgent” installation of cameras has been carried out at the Algeciras police station three years after the ministerial order.
According to many sources from the association, circular 4/2018 of the Secretary of State for Security requires that surveillance measures be extreme when dealing with detainees for gender violence or those with a propensity to self-harm, two conditions that were met in the case. of Daniel. “Between 00:54 and 01:40 there was no surveillance patrol, a period in which the death of the detainee occurred. This was recorded by the video surveillance cameras in the cell corridor,” the sources detail.
New request for proceedings
After the tests carried out, the opinion of the prosecution lawyers is that “the agents in charge of Daniel’s custody failed to fulfill their duty of vigilance and were untruthful in the report with the aim of preventing a more exhaustive investigation and thus evading their responsibility. ”.
“It was precisely this false description of the facts, protected by the presumption of truthfulness that is conferred on the police statement within the criminal procedure, which motivated the dismissal of the case and the inadmissibility of the taking of other evidence. , under the assertion that the agents did not act ‘with a lack of diligence’ but rather ‘acted as expected.’” “Only the protection of the Constitutional Court has allowed, four years later, the reactivation of the investigation and, with it, the clarification of what happened,” they say.
Likewise, the carrying out of investigative procedures that are still pending has been requested again, such as the identification of the detainees who were in the cells on the night of May 31 (so that they can testify about the events), the examination of the blanket and the shred used for hanging, as well as the expert evidence relating to the ability of the rope to adhere to vertical bars.
The gypsy lawyers Manuel Reyes Reyes and Luis Mendoza Carmona take on the private accusation, on behalf of the family, and the popular accusation, representing the association of Gypsy Jurists, respectively.
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