Strasbourg court dismisses first two appeals over police charges during independence referendum

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has dismissed the first two appeals over police charges during the Catalan Independence referendum on October 1, 2017. After exhausting Spanish judicial channels, two citizens of Bages denounced Spain to the Strasbourg court in August 2020 for having violated their right to a fair trial due to the lack of a proper investigation of the charges. They also consider that other fundamental rights have been violated such as the right to assembly, free expression and not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.

According to ACN, on May 25, 2021 the ECHR declared these two appeals inadmissible because the complaints were "unfounded" and did not see evidence of violations of fundamental rights. A chamber composed of a single judge has studied the case, but "in view of the evidence adduced, it does not appear that there has been a violation of the rights and freedoms" of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to the court's notification. The decision is final and cannot be reviewed, although this does not prevent others affected by the police charges to appeal to Strasbourg when their judicial proceedings in the Spanish state come to an end.

The two plaintiffs, J.P.R. and S.T.V., were two of the sixteen slightly injured by the intervention of the Guardia Civil on October 1at Sant Miquel School in Castellgalí, a village of around 2,000 inhabitants near Manresa where force was deployed to clear the polling station. Dissatisfied with the Spanish state's dismissal of the case, the two citizens were the first to appeal to the Strasbourg court claiming their fundamental rights had been violated.