A total of 71 ultras from the Athletic Front and Riazor Blues tried for the brawl that ended on November 30, 2014 with the death of Francisco Javier Romero Taboada, known as Jimmy, have agreed with the prosecutor although they have accepted their right not to testify despite the fact that the agreement implies an acknowledgment of the facts.
Upon arrival at the Albarracín street courts, most of the defendants have covered their faces with masks, hoods and glasses to avoid being caught on camera. In its entirety, the courts in this judicial headquarters belong or belonged to the Athletic Front, while the rest are fans of Deportivo de A Coruña.
Of all the defendants, a total of 71 have reached a compliance agreement, which includes applying the mitigation of undue delay and recognition, compared to eleven who have opposed recognizing the facts judged.
After agreeing, the defendants who have formed have left the room, while the trial has continued for the rest. However, the judge has informed them that they will have to go to court on the last day of the trial to use or not their right to have the last word.
The macro trial has started in various judicial venues throughout Spain to avoid clashes between the fans and with the majority of the defendants sitting in Criminal Court number 23 in Madrid. One of the defendants has not attended the trial, so the judge has urged the location of him.
The other venues from where they have been tried are A Coruña, Gijón, Alcalá de Henares, Talavera, Huelva and Valencia. This is a procedural milestone in the Madrid Justice system due to the great technological deployment that has enabled several courts to be connected electronically for the first time.
Once the pacts have been closed, the trial has started with the reading of previous questions and the statements. The defendants who have agreed have accepted their right not to testify, a right they enjoy even if they have agreed with the prosecutor, which implies recognition of the facts. The penalties included in the agreement are yet to be determined, as legal sources have pointed out to Europa Press.
In front of them, the rest of the defendants who do not recognize their participation have disassociated themselves from the brawl, two of them have even told the prosecutor, the judge and the lawyers that they were not in said place. One of them was in Paris with his girlfriend and the other, then with a broken arm, was with his partner in Salamanca.
During the massive brawl, some people threw a badly injured Depor fan known as Jimmy into the Manzanares river. The homicide was investigated for years but finally the case was closed due to the lack of a known perpetrator and no one has come to trial.
In his previous brief, the representative of the Public Ministry requests sentences ranging from 9 months to two and a half years in prison for crimes of riotous quarrel, illegal possession of weapons and attacking authority with a crime of injury.
According to the prosecutor, the defendants belonged to the Athletic Front and the Riazor Blues. The prosecutor asks for the crime of riotous brawl, with the aggravating circumstance of ideological discrimination, sentences of between one year and nine months in prison. This offense is charged to all defendants.
Likewise, it claims four of them a year and a half for illegal possession of weapons. He also asks two more for a year and ten months in jail for a crime of injury and attack.
The prosecutor reports that the defendants agreed on social networks to go to the surroundings of the Vicente Calderón stadium at 9:00 a.m. with the “sole motivation of demonstrating to the other group the supremacy of their team and the ideology with which they identify.” .
Some of them carried “prohibited weapons and dangerous instruments such as wooden or aluminum sticks, batons, baseball bats, knives, carabiners, and extendable defenses.” As a result of the brawl, several were injured and one of them, ‘Jimmy’, died.
On the other hand, the National Professional Soccer League asks the defendants for up to three and a half years in prison and fines of up to 117,000 euros, as stated in the order to open the oral trial.
