The city guard who shot a homeless man in the abdomen in Barcelona has been acquitted without trial.

BarcelonaHeBarcelona Urban Guard agent who fired a shot in 2020 A homeless man who was walking along Passeig de Sant Joan with a knife in his hand has been acquitted without ever having to go to trial. The judges of the Second Section of the Barcelona Court of Appeals have dismissed the Arrels Foundation from the case at the last minute. This has overturned the only remaining accusation against the officer, as the Prosecutor's Office did not accuse him of any crime, and the victim's lawyer was also dismissed because the man who lived on the streets, Marjan, has been untraceable for years.

The judges justified this by arguing that, since there is no record in any document that Marjan authorized Arrels to prosecute on his behalf, the entity could not intervene in the trial scheduled for this Wednesday. This contradicts the decision of another section of the Barcelona Court of Appeals, the Seventh Section, which in 2022 authorized Arrels to appear as a private prosecutor. The entity justified its presence by basing the accusation on the fact that the agent had fired a shot aporophobia, the phobia of poverty, and has expressed her "disappointment" that the officer was acquitted without even being tried, suggesting that the judges are once again "excluding" the accused from his fundamental right to justice.

Before being removed from the proceedings, Arrels was seeking a 10-year prison sentence for attempted murder aggravated by aporophobia. Arrels's lawyer, Eva Hobeich, has announced that they will appeal the court's decision. She argues that the court opted to apply "judicial formalism," "an interpretation so strict that it makes it impossible to hold a trial to guarantee Marjan's rights." "Homeless people don't have a telephone, they don't have a home where they can be reached. We understand that this is a very restrictive interpretation and very contrary to fundamental rights and the right of access to justice," Hobeich added.

In fact, Marjan is in contempt of court. In parallel to the accusation against the police officer, both the agent and the Prosecutor's Office The homeless man is accused of assaulting an authority figure.The prosecutor requested that the prison sentence be replaced with four years of confinement in a psychiatric facility, as the man suffers from a mental disorder that, at the time of the events, prevented him from being aware of what he was doing. Marjan's trial was also scheduled to take place today, but the crime he is accused of committing prevents him from being tried unless he is present in court. At this point, Arrels criticized the courts for not adapting to the personal circumstances of homeless people and took the opportunity to call for training in aporophobia for public officials.

Cross-accusations

The charges against him to be tried this Wednesday date back to the afternoon of November 21, 2020, when Marjan was at the entrance of a building on Passeig de Sant Joan with his belongings piled up, preventing the building's residents from accessing the building. A neighbor called the Guardia Urbana (City Police) to intervene. When the officers arrived in the police car, Marjan began walking quickly up and down the promenade with a knife in his hand, while the officers asked him to stop and gather his belongings. According to the charges, the defendant did not obey the officers and continued walking from Calle Caspe to Plaza Tetuán, on Gran Via.

A police van attempted to block his path, but then, according to the charges, "he lunged at the officer with the knife in his right hand," to the point that the officer "feared for his physical safety." When Marjan was already within striking distance, the officer fired his service weapon: "first, a shot toward the ground, which did not stop the defendant, and a second shot that knocked him down," seriously wounding him, the prosecution's statement adds. After that, Marjan was hospitalized at Sant Pau Hospital for four months until he was discharged.