Barcelona withdraws Rosa Peral's medal of honor for merit

BarcelonaBarcelona took the first step this Wednesday toward withdrawing the decorations it previously awarded to Rosa Peral. The City Council's Presidency, Security, and Internal Affairs Committee unanimously voted to revoke the bronze medal of honor for merit awarded to her by the plenary session on October 18, 2013. The same committee also agreed to revoke the two medals of honor for merit, from 2010 and 2020, awarded to the former regional chief of operations for the National Police in Catalonia. Juan Fortuny, who murdered his partner and ex-partner last year.

The Fourth Deputy Mayor for Security, Albert Batlle, has defended the withdrawal of all these awards because both Peral and Fortuny had committed acts "totally contrary to honor, individual dignity, and the most basic rights." Therefore, he considered it necessary to revoke the distinctions from two individuals whose conduct has "attacked the good name, image, and prestige of the Guardia Urbana and Barcelona City Council." The final decision will now be passed to the full council, which will most likely ratify the suspension of these medals next week.

Peral has been serving a sentence since 2017 for the murder of fellow Guardia Urbana officer Pedro Rodríguez, who was found burned to death inside the trunk of his car in the Foix reservoir in May 2017. It was a premeditated murder: the premeditated result: her lover, fellow police officer Albert López. The judge sentenced Peral to 25 years in prison, and López to 20 years.

Double sexist crime

In Fortuny's case, in August of last year, he shot and killed his partner in Rubí and his ex-partner in Castellbisbal, and then committed suicide. He was the former regional chief of operations for the National Police in Catalonia. He had retired a year and a half earlier after 44 years in the force and had received a tribute from his colleagues and commanders at the Catalan Police Headquarters on Via Layetana in Barcelona.