The trial begins for four officers for emptying an eye of Roger Español, the only police officers tried for the 1-O

BarcelonaNine years after the 1-O, four national police officers are sitting this Wednesday in the dock for the rubber bullet that mutilated Roger Español's eye. They are the only officers who will be tried for the police charges of a day with a thousand injured. The Public Prosecutor's Office has requested their acquittal because it believes they were doing their job and the State Attorney's Office is defending them. Even so, Español's complaint and the popular accusations of Irídia, the ANC and Òmnium have caused the case to reach the trial starting this Wednesday, in which the officers face sentences of up to 13 years in prison and disqualification for the crimes of torture and injuries with the loss of an organ.

The accused are the shotgunner who fired the rubber bullet, the inspector who led the operational group and two sub-inspectors who acted as deputy heads of the riot control group. The three commanders ordered and authorized the use of rubber bullets. The officer who fired and the three superiors were among the 10,000 police and civil guards that the State sent to Catalonia for the referendum. Unlike the 46 officers investigated in another case for the 1-O charges, these four police officers have not benefited from the amnesty law, because it does not cover injuries of this severity.

Español will testify at the start of the trial and the case's witnesses –among whom are about fifty officers– will do so between this same Wednesday and Thursday. Afterwards, the trial will not resume until two weeks from now, Wednesday, September 30. This will make the last day of the trial, when the accused will testify, coincide exactly with the ninth anniversary of October 1, 2017, the day the impact of a rubber bullet mutilated Roger Español's eye at the Ramon Llull School in Barcelona. For that day, a mobilization is planned at the Arc de Triomf, in front of the Barcelona Court, where the case will be tried.

During the entire investigation of the case, Español was also targeted in this same cause. The Public Prosecutor's Office wanted him to be tried for attacking the officers for having thrown a fence, but the Barcelona Court ruled it out. During the trial, the role of the prosecutor –who usually represents the public prosecution– will not be against him or the police, because they are asking for them to be acquitted. Español is also requesting 320,632 euros in compensation from the police and the Spanish government.

The intention and the role of the superiors

A central element of the trial will be the intention with which the shooter acted. Specifically, whether he fired with the intention of causing harm and "punishing" Español, as the accusations claim, despite being aware of the risk involved. The shooter fired three times towards the place where Español was, at a distance of 14 meters, and the third rubber bullet was the one that struck him in the eye. The scene was recorded in the footage by La Directa journalist La DirectaDavid Bou. The fact that he fired three times has also led the judges who have intervened so far to think that the action could have been intentional.

The role of the three superiors will also be key. The accusations consider them co-authors because the shooter fired "by mutual agreement" with the three superiors, who had given the orders to use rubber bullets at a time when, according to the judges who sent them to trial, "it was not appropriate, nor necessary, nor relevant at a clearly dangerous distance".

Representatives from six international human rights organizations will follow the trial to assess whether it is granted the guarantees of a "fair and impartial" trial. There will be members from Amnesty International, the World Organisation Against Torture, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, Redress, the International Coalition for Human Rights, and Defenders of those who Defend.