Rosa Peral's father was acquitted of covering for her because the lie did not prevent the conviction for the Urban Guard crime.

BarcelonaA Barcelona court has acquitted Paco Peral, the father of Rosa Peral, in the case in which he was accused of lying to protect her while she was being investigated for the murder of a member of the Barcelona Municipal Police. The ruling confirms that the man lied to the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) who were handling the case, but dismisses a conviction because the deception had no bearing on determining his daughter's guilt. Former Municipal Police officer Rosa Peral is serving a sentence for the 2017 murder of her partner, fellow officer Pedro Rodríguez, committed along with her lover and patrol partner, Albert López.

The ruling from Criminal Court No. 5 of Barcelona puts an end to a case for the crime of false witnessing in which Paco Peral faced a sentence of one year and four months in prison. This crime punishes witnesses who lie in court: unlike defendants, who can lie in their defense, witnesses are obligated to tell the truth. In this case, Paco Peral also had the option of invoking the right not to testify, as is the case for all witnesses with a direct family relationship to the accused. But he declined and chose to testify.

The judge has confirmed, as the prosecution argued, that Paco Peral lied when he stated the last time he saw the victim. In the initial phase of the investigation, he told officers that he had seen Pedro Rodríguez alive on May 2nd, the day after the early morning hours when the police and the courts concluded that the crime was committed. After the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) arrested Rosa Peral, her father confessed to two officers that he had lied because his daughter had asked him to, and that he hadn't actually seen Pedro Rodríguez that day. These two officers recounted the conversation during the trial, but Paco Peral denied it.

"All the elements" of the crime

The judge clarifies that the crime of perjury punishes lying during a trial, not deceiving the police during an investigation. However, since Paco Peral denied that conversation, the ruling emphasizes that the man's behavior meets "all the elements" of the crime of perjury. The judge considers that Paco Peral's statement did not influence the determination of his daughter's guilt, and since it did not impede the judicial process, a conviction is ruled out. Furthermore, the judge notes that Peral corrected himself in subsequent statements and never again claimed to have seen Pedro Rodríguez on May 2nd. In fact, he justified himself by claiming he had said it "by mistake" and that during the investigation he received so much "pressure" from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) that he couldn't remember if he had told them he had lied in his initial statement.