The repentance of the ranchers before their arrest can be considered a mitigating circumstance
The seven arrested for the assault on Monday at the municipal plenary session in which a motion on the urban regulations of pig farms was to be debated can face sentences ranging between six months and three years in prison, according to confirmed lawyers consulted by THE TRUTH. The detainees, who were released with charges after giving a statement at the National Police Station, are being investigated for crimes of attack on authority and public disorder, typified in articles 550 and 557 of the Penal Code.
The same sources also confirmed that the repentance of the assailants before the arrest occurred and their collaboration to help clarify the facts are mitigating circumstances that the Public Prosecutor will have to assess and that are included in article 21.4 and 21.5 of the Code Penal. One of those investigated who could benefit from these mitigating circumstances is the rancher Pedro Giner, owner of a goat farm and a cheese factory, who confessed his participation in the assault after being recognized in the recordings of the security cameras of the Center for Local Development and in the photographs and videos that were disseminated in the media. So, he showed his remorse and publicly apologized for his behavior.
The proceedings of the case of the assault on the Plenary are processed by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 1 of Lorca, which may be inhibited as soon as it takes a statement from those investigated in the coming days because the cause corresponds to court number 7.
It will act with “exemplarity”
The Government Delegation, in parallel with the ongoing criminal proceedings, has asked the City Council and the National Police for all the complaints filed after the incidents for infractions that correspond to the precepts of the Organic Law for the Protection of Citizen Security, to open the corresponding disciplinary proceedings.
The Government delegate, José Vélez, said that “we must act as an example to prevent the repetition of very serious and intolerable events such as those that occurred in Lorca” and congratulated the Police “for their work and for a rigorous investigation” after the assault.
He also announced that the Delegation will open a sanction file for disturbing public order against the organizer of the demonstration of ranchers after which the assault was triggered and that had not been authorized, although his identity was not made public. This demonstration was called by the livestock sector after the assembly that was held on the Friday before the plenary session, with the aim of protesting against the approval of the new regulation for farms. The ranchers gathered 500 people in this act of protest, which included a caravan of cars, vans and tractors that collapsed in the center of the city.
Mateos: “It will take a long time to lift the bad image we have given throughout the country”
The mayor of Lorca, Diego José Mateos, assured yesterday that, after the incidents on Monday, “what I most regret is the image that Lorca has given throughout the country” and was saddened because “it will take a long time to lift it.” For Mateos, “it has been the image of a tense city, in which violence is used, when it is not. Lorca is a welcoming city, in which many cultures and ways of thinking coexist, and nothing happens. We have so much to offer.”
The Consistory will wait for the investigation to end and for the judicial authorities to be transferred “to act accordingly” and appear in the criminal case, “because an act of violence against a democratic body cannot go unpunished.”
An audio file from a WhatsApp group attributed to ranchers went viral yesterday as it contained serious insults against IU councilor Gloria Martín. Disqualifications such as “tiparraca”, “scoundrel” and “fat as a badger” dot the arguments of the rancher who accuses her of triggering the assault on the Plenary with provocations and of being behind the closure of 150 farms. The mayor herself published the message on her social networks to make visible the “manipulation” of the story of the facts about the new farm regulations and the violence in plenary.
In statements to LA VERDAD, she acknowledged feeling “shocked and defenseless” and fearing for her physical integrity in the face of a “hate speech” based on lies about her involvement in the closure of livestock establishments. She stated that “these are very serious statements”, which beyond denigrating her serve to fuel a message of hate.