Flying kick policeman refuses to testify
Another officer admits that he gave a voter a "warning" with a truncheon
BarcelonaThe two Spanish police officers identified by an expert evidence of the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, as aggressors of two voters in the IES Pau Claris of Barcelona during the 2017 Independence Referendum have refused to answer any questions before the court that is investigating them. One of them is the agent who gave a flying kick to a voter on the stairs of the centre; the other shoved a voter down the stairs. Previously, one of the Mossos who made the report has ratified the document.
In the police report, requested by the popular accusation represented by the human rights entity Irídia and agreed to by the investigating judge, several images are analysed in depth to differentiate the location and clothing of the riot police who acted on the stairs of the voting centre.
The state prosecutor has defended the police action, while the state attorney has been very critical of the expert evidence, asking the Mosso d'Esquadra if he had medical knowledge, and advising his clients not to answer any questions. In fact, it was the first time that national police officers investigated in this case did not answer any questions, because until now they used to ahave answered the questions of the judge, the prosecutor and their defence.
The flying kick policeman had already been investigated for other events of that day and when he testified he was asked about the kick. Despite admitting that he was there, he denied the specific facts. Irídia presented a very exhaustive report with screen captures that identified this agent giving the flying kick and then assaulting another woman. The report also shows another officer shaking a voter who had previously been pushed down the center stairs. As a result of this report, the court commissioned the Mossos d'Esquadra to come up with an expert report on the matter.
No violence
One of the National Police riot police who acted on 1 October in Barcelona admitted in court on Friday that he hit a voter at the Dolors Monserdà School in Barcelona on the legs to give her a "warning" because she wouldn't move away and was recording the police action. In the images you can see him hitting her with his truncheon.
The agent, who is under investigation for a crime against moral integrity, recognised himself in a video where he is seen beating with the truncheon a demonstrator to widen the police line once the agents were already inside the polling station. According to the sources of the accusations, the agent has also admitted that those concentrated in the school did not exercise any physical violence but "verbal", with "xenophobic and racist insults" to the riot police.
At the moment, 63 people are under investigation, 58 of which are Spanish police officers. The police action left 315 people injured, 127 of whom are part of the accusation in this case.
