Victims of the 17-A attacks seek the complicity of the victims' countries of origin by opening a new investigation.

BarcelonaThe 17-A Association: We Want to Know the Truth was launched this Wednesday with the goal of "not only remembering the victims and the pain, but also giving back to society." This is how she summed it up. Javier Martínez, father of Xavi who died at the age of three during the attack on La Rambla of Barcelona on August 17, 2017. Martínez will preside over this new association, which will have as treasurer his daughter and Xavi's sister, Mireia Martínez, who, following the attack, decided to train as a health and emergency psychologist. The board of directors is completed by former Mossos d'Esquadra David Torrents, who will be vice president, and lawyer and former Junts MP Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas as secretary. He has represented Xavi's family in the judicial proceedings surrounding the attacks and is working to get other countries to investigate the attacks.

During the association's presentation at the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB), Cuevillas explained what moves they plan to make following the recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to reject his lawsuit calling for the reopening of the investigation in SpainFirst, they are working to have the court reconsider the decision, which would require the intervention of three ECHR judges, not just one as has been the case up to now. "We believe there is a basis for reopening it, but we have Spain working with all its services: visible and underground, including the sewage system," Cuevillas criticized.

On the other hand, the lawyer explained that they have contacted victims and lawyers from other countries, as the attack affected many tourists, in order to take legal action abroad. "If the Spanish justice system has not judged the events on La Rambla, there is room for it to do so in other countries," he said, after recalling that the trial in the National Court focused on the events of August 16 in Alcanar and Cambrils, but not on those of the following day, because the main suspects had died. "I'd say France is the country where we're most advanced, but there are other countries with jurisdictions that couldn't begin to act until the Spanish case was closed. And now it is," he responded when asked about which states he's focusing his expectations on.

Assistance and Protection Protocol

Robert Manrique, victim of the Hipercor attack in 1987 and coordinator of the the now dissolved Unit for Attention and Assessment of Those Affected by Terrorism (UAVAT)Manrique used his speech to point out that Catalonia still does not have a regional law for the protection of victims—which the unit has been demanding for years—nor a protocol for post-attack assistance.

The association has also announced that among its goals will be to demand that public authorities "carry out the necessary investigations to ascertain all the circumstances surrounding any terrorist act and act with transparency." They also want to dedicate themselves to accompanying and supporting those affected by any attack. "Other regions have support offices; in Catalonia, there aren't any. Here, all political parties have been vocal, but the victims don't want an institutional event; they want support. If the Administration doesn't do it, we will," Torrents told an audience in the front row at the Borsa.