The Public Prosecutor's Office requests the internment of six minors for the riots in Barcelona and those arrested rise to 130

BarcelonaThe arrests continue and the first judicial response to the riots on Saturday in Barcelona has arrived. The Juvenile Prosecutor's Office has requested the internment of 6 detainees and a ban on attending demonstrations for 20 others involved. Meanwhile, the number of detainees has risen to 130 – 78 of whom are minors –, according to the latest balance from the Mossos d'Esquadra, who continue to investigate who is behind this episode.

The anonymous call was spread through social networks and mobile messaging groups and gathered about 500 young people around Plaça Catalunya. The protest lasted for hours, until midnight, and led to clashes, barricades, and damage to vehicles, street furniture, and about thirty shops. 14 Mossos agents and one from the Guàrdia Urbana were injured, and the Firefighters carried out 33 interventions for fires on public roads.

According to the Mossos' balance, of the 130 detainees, 123 are men – 49 adults and 74 minors – and 7 women – 5 adults and 2 minors –. The police have set up an investigation team that is analyzing images and other evidence to identify those responsible for the call. Of the minors for whom the Prosecutor's Office has requested internment, three already appeared on Sunday, and the other three are expected to do so throughout this Monday. Today, about forty adult detainees will also be brought to justice. Information that the Mossos can extract from the searches and identifications they made in the moments before the riots will also be key to the investigation. Pyrotechnics, balaclavas, sprays, stones, and some bladed weapons are the objects that were seized on Saturday in the vicinity of Plaça de Catalunya.

On the other hand, the Interior Department will judicially urge the closure of the mobile messaging groups that spread the protest, via WhatsApp or Telegram. This was announced this morning by the Minister of Interior, Núria Parlon, in an interview on RAC1, in which she assured that these channels "incite violence, riots, and the commission of crimes". Likewise, they will also request the identities of the people behind this dissemination and have accused them of "recruiting the young population to carry out certain actions". However, she acknowledged that it will not be easy, because those responsible are likely hiding behind false names.

Saturday's protests, "something new"

Faced with criticism for a lack of foresight, Parlon has defended the police operation. She recalled that 210 ARRO officers were deployed and that searches, arrests, and identifications had already been carried out before the riots, which will allow for "providing valuable information to investigators." And regarding the speculations pointing to a political party having instigated this episode, the minister replied: "I am a minister, I cannot say that," but she urged for "rigor" and asked for time so that the Mossos' investigation "reaches the end."

The minister asserted that Saturday's incidents "are something new": "They did not respond to the usual pattern of a demonstration that is dissolving and in which a small group takes advantage to commit acts of vandalism," but rather "they were small groups acting a priori in a disorderly way with the sole objective of smashing shop windows and committing aggravated robbery, taking advantage of the disorder, entering and confronting the police directly."

Parlon, just as the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, also did, pointed to the responsibility of the families of the detained minors: "The parents are responsible for them." She also said that there will be consequences: "It is not tolerable, and these young people cannot go unpunished," she insisted.