2023-11-10 16:35:55
BarcelonaIn the beginning it was a demonstration of support called by the SUP and AUGC unions for six national police officers who declared this Friday morning in the City of Justice as being investigated for harassing and mistreating Paula, a girl who was arrested in Via Laietana during the protests against the judgment of the Trial in 2019. Then Paula was 21 years old. More than a show of warmth towards the accused (only one has testified in person), the rally has become a cry against amnesty, against Pedro Sánchez, who has been labeled a “traitor”, and against Carles Puigdemont, whose name they constantly rhymed with the word prison. “If they will be granted amnesty”, commented a policeman about the cause that affects up to 13 of his colleagues. Afterwards, however, he made it clear that he did not agree, “neither for the pro-independence parties nor for the police”. It is not yet clear the scope of the amnesty or whether Paula will enter it – who, apart from being a whistleblower, is accused of public disorder that same night -, nor the policemen who would have harassed her.
Concentration of police unions against amnesty.
Specifically, she accuses them of three crimes: one of threats, one against moral integrity and another against freedoms. Paula explains that on October 18 she was demonstrating in Via Laietana and that during a police charge she fell on top of a boy. At that moment, riot police from the National Police appeared and arrested them both. Before arriving at the Via Laietana police station, he narrates that the officers turned off all the lights of the police van and began circling the same space, as if to scare them. By then she was handcuffed and when she got out of the van they pushed her. He fell face down on the ground and because he couldn’t put his hands on it, he suffered several injuries, recorded in the medical reports included in the case.
Inside the Via Laietana police station, according to the girl’s version, they left her in the middle of a room with other detainees. Some were badly injured. Others, he says, are almost naked. He describes that there was blood on the walls. A policeman ordered him to dress some of the detainees. If new ones arrived, he says the police put them against the wall and assaulted them. She asked them to stop and an officer approached her with a knife in his hand and said: “If there is going to be a death it will not be from our side“. There is no recording that recorded this scene. There were cameras, but the images, he says, were deleted after a few days. Yes, there is the testimony of two other people, a boy and a girl, who they arrested at the same point of the demonstration. The girl is Xènia and she also reported the same facts to the police. Like Paula’s case, hers is under investigation.
No legal assistance
Another of the elements denounced by Paula’s defense, coordinated by lawyer Norma Pedemonte, from Alerta Solidària, is that her arrest was not made official until 13 hours later and, therefore, she did not have legal assistance until then This would be proven: the record of the arrest is at six in the afternoon and it is not communicated to the Bar Association until the following morning. The situation greatly distressed his family, who were calling several hospitals in case something had happened to him without getting an answer. In addition, when she reported in 2021, Paula underwent a psychological examination and, according to her defense, the results of this expert test are “very conclusive”.
After the arrest, Paula spent 10 days in preventive prison by order of the judge. It is now pending the indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office and that a trial for public disorder be indicated. In fact, the same court of inquiry brings her complaint against the police and the case against her for public disorder. This Friday, three of the 13 police officers who, according to a National Police report, took part in the custody of the complainant, testified. The person in charge, however, has informed the court that he cannot testify until December 1. And two more were not part of the device that arrested her, although the police stated that they were. Be that as it may, they have all taken up their right not to testify.
This has meant that the appearances have been rushed and that the tempos with the demonstration outside did not quite match. When the protest began (at 12 o’clock), the officers had already appeared before the judge for some time. A hundred people gathered there, including representatives of the PP, Ciutadans and Vox. All of this has still made the demonstration focus more on the amnesty than on a cause that could come to nothing in a few months, depending on what the law says that will allow Pedro Sánchez to remain president.
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