The Barcelona Court has handed down a harsh sentence against some Mossos d’Esquadra officers who assaulted a young man who was suspended for skipping curfew during the covid crisis. The sentence of the seventh section imposes a sentence of seven years in prison for two Mossos officers from the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona who slapped and assaulted the young man and who then falsified the police report to cover up. There are two more convicted officers. One is sentenced to three years in prison, and the other to one year. In addition, the sentence obliges the victim to be compensated with more than 14,000 euros, to which must be added the cost of dental expenses for the three teeth that were broken.
The judges criticize that the victim “was arrested without any reason” and that “the use of force was unnecessary, excessive and, therefore, disproportionate”. The assault was recorded by a neighbor who was hanging out the laundry and this video has been a key piece of evidence to convict the officers.
The events took place on November 13, 2020. At that time, a curfew had been imposed that prohibited circulation in the streets beyond 10 p.m. due to the health crisis. Around 11.30 p.m., a patrol stopped a group. The young people, according to the sentence, did not heed the first warning from the Mossos, but did the second, “when they warned that the order was directed at them”. The agents put them against the wall and asked for their documentation.” The corporal was very upset and reprimanded them that “when the police stopped them, they had to stop”. The young man replied that they should have stopped a criminal who had just robbed them of five euros. That “bothered” the corporal, who “struck him hard with both hands on the face, at the height of the ears, then grabbed him by the neck and pinned him against the wall. Then he separated him from the group and threw him to the ground in the middle of the road in a maneuver known as the sweep: he lifted him by the legs and at the same time pushed him to the ground with his hand on one shoulder, making a key which caused him to fall violently against the asphalt”, describes the resolution.
After that, there were other officers who helped the corporal reduce the detainee. One of them, being aware that there was no reason to immobilize him, while there were others who acted “without being aware of the illegality of the arrest”. The young man was taken to the police station, where he spent the whole night, until he was brought before the court the next day at 12:30 p.m. The court convicts the officers who participated in the action for a crime against moral integrity, illegal detention, injuries and falsification of a public document. In order to justify the arrest, the corporal and another officer falsified the police report.
