Two mossos investigated for girl who lost an eye three months ago

BarcelonaA Barcelona court is investigating two mossos d'esquadra for the 19-year-old girl who lost an eye three months ago, on the first night of protests against the imprisonment of Pablo Hasél. They are the shotgunners who fired foam bullets on 16 February at around half past eight in the evening at the intersection of Carrer Bosch and Via Augusta. Judge Joaquín Aguirre, head of Barcelona's investigating court number 1, has admitted the complaint filed by the victim and has summoned the girl, a witness and the two riot police officers to testify on 14 June as investigated parties.

"One of the two is, allegedly and probably, the one who shot the bullet that caused the very serious injuries", explains the lawyer for the private prosecution - representing the victim - Xavier Muñoz. The court has also accepted the NGO Irídia as the case's popular accusation and the co-director of the entity, the lawyer Anaïs Franquesa, sees as "positive" that the two shotgunners are cited as investigated parties for a crime of injury that has caused the loss or uselessness of a major organ. Franquesa stresses that the identification of the agents "would not have been possible" without the new format of the riot police operational number (NOP), because now they also carry it in the front part of the uniform.

How they shot the foam

The victim's lawyer hopes that the agents "can explain what their actions were and if it is worthy of a criminal reproach". "Very probably the shot was fired was carried out in an unregulated manner. We consider it unacceptable that people attending a demonstration may be subjected to vital risks", said Muñoz, who claims that the investigation "meets the needs of truth and justice". The girl was operated on at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and the judge has requested information at the centre, as he has also done with the Medical Emergency System (SEM), which attended her at the beginning. The girl has completely lost her right eye and she now has to wear an ocular prosthesis.