The Court of Barcelona has sentenced three young people who threw stones at the Mossos d’Esquadra in a demonstration for the third anniversary of 1-O to three years in prison and imposed another six months in prison on one of them for attacking an agent , who must be compensated with 76,647 euros for the injuries.
In its sentence, to which EFE has had access, the seventh section of the Barcelona Court acquits the three young people of the crime of public disorder, since it has not been possible to prove that they installed barricades or burned containers, but sentences them to three years in prison for a crime of assault on authority for throwing stones at a police van with agents inside.
In addition, one of the three defendants is sentenced by the Court to another six months in prison, a fine of 1,080 euros and compensation of 76,647 euros to a mosso -represented by the lawyer José Antonio Bitos, from the USPAC police union-, whom he attacked in his escape to avoid being arrested, before which the agent fell to the ground, broke his fibula and injured his ankle, for which he had to undergo surgery.
The events occurred on October 1, 2020, when the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural called a demonstration to commemorate the third anniversary of the 2017 independence referendum.
The three defendants, residents of Granollers (Barcelona), attended the demonstration, which started from the Plaza de Sant Jaume in Barcelona and reached the Plaza de Catalunya, where a group of protesters began to put up barricades.
According to the sentence, which can be appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), when the three defendants, acting jointly, were at the intersection between Pelai and Balmes streets, they threw stones at at least one riot van of the Mossos d’Esquadra, which was on the march with agents inside.
An agent who saw them throwing the stones called for reinforcements, noticed them and followed their trail, without losing sight of them, until a group of colleagues were able to stop them shortly after in the Plaza de Catalunya, while they were still carrying stones in their hands. hand.
According to the sentence, when they were going to be arrested, one of the youths tried to escape and pushed a policeman, before which he fell to the ground and hit his head.
In this case, the court does not sentence the young man, considering that he did not intend to injure the agent but rather to flee.
In fact, this mosso, who was in civilian clothes, assured in the trial that it seemed to him that the boy’s intention was not to injure him but to flee, before which the court admits that, as the defendants maintain, they could believe that he was It was about a person with an ideology contrary to the independence movement who approached them.
However, the young man, who also dodged two other mossos who were trying to stop him shouting “high policeman”, “hit strongly” another agent, in this case, according to the court, with the intention of violating the proper functioning of the State security forces and bodies.
Specifically, the young man, when he was fleeing “at full speed”, rammed the mosso, despite the fact that he could have dodged him as he had done with his companions, and hit him in the leg, before which they both fell to the ground.
The agent broke his fibula and suffered ankle injuries, for which he had to undergo surgery and spent two days in hospital and 770 without being able to carry out his usual tasks.
In this case, the court considers that the defendant acted with the intention of injuring the mosso or, if not, at least knowing that it was probable that he could injure him, by running over him “at great speed and ramming him as he did”, for which it attributes him a crime of assault on authority in competition with one of injuries.
On the contrary, the court concludes that it has not been possible to prove that the defendants participated in the burning of containers or in the barricades, for which reason it exonerates them from the crime of public disorder, since they only acted jointly to throw stones at a van ” taking advantage of the riot”.
