Strasbourg strikes down the 'environmental violence' invention that Marchena used in the Procés trial

BarcelonaJudge Manuel Marchena used the concept of environmental violence for the first time against four of the protesters who surrounded Parliament in 2011 to try to obstruct the passage of deputies when the budgets consolidating the cuts were to be approved. None of them committed a violent act, but they were sentenced to three years in prison for the mere fact of attending a demonstration in which crimes could have been committed. Once the foundations were laid, Marchena himself used "environmental violence" to justify the sentence against the leaders of the Procés.

Strasbourg, however, has overturned this legal concept. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Spain and ruled this Thursday on the case of those four protesters from 2011: violent acts committed by a third party in a protest cannot be attributed to or made to be paid for by people who are demonstrating peacefully. Furthermore, the European court asserts that the Spanish justice system violated the right to demonstrate, assembly, and freedom of expression of the Catalans. A verdict that the lawyer for the four plaintiffs, Eduardo Cáliz (Arrelsavdocats), celebrates in a telephone conversation with ARA because it "banishes" the concept of environmental violence, "strengthens the protection" of these fundamental rights, and "puts limits on the criminalization of protest".

The ECHR itself points out that the demonstration involved "an interruption that went beyond a minor disturbance" and, for example, several deputies of the Catalan chamber were heckled. In addition, the president of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, and the president of the Parliament, Núria de Gispert, had to arrive by helicopter. Nevertheless, the court recalls that the Supreme Court's sentence does not attribute any violent action to any of the four convicted individuals in particular and that, therefore, their conduct cannot "constitute an act of violence or incitement to violence," even if the environment may be "intimidating"—as Marchena argued—or third parties may have punishable attitudes.

Protest slogans

The European court's verdict ensures that the four convicted individuals limited themselves to "following two deputies" while "singing or shouting protest slogans," and raising their arms and reproaching some of the political representatives. It also notes that they were not the organizers of the protest and that it had the permits to be carried out, as the Supreme Court's ruling also admits. For this reason, the Strasbourg court considers the sentence against the four protesters to be "disproportionate."

Thus, the lawyer for the four protesters asserts that the jurisprudence established by Marchena seeks a "deterrent effect" not only on the convicted, but on society as a whole. "It is a very important step to guarantee the right of the working class and social movements to exercise the right to protest," assures Cáliz.