The Court of Barcelona has sentenced six agents of the Mossos d’Esquadra who tortured, assaulted, intimidated, and humiliated two young people “totally free and unjustified” to sentences of up to 5 years and 1 month in prison and 4 years of disqualification who skipped a police control in 2016.
In the sentence, the seventh section of the Court of Barcelona considers that in this case all the elements “to be able to speak of torture” concur, since the agents abused their position, used an “inexplicable excess of violence”, physically punished the two young men “unjustifiably” when they were already restrained and handcuffed and they humiliated and intimidated them, telling them that they could be killed and “nobody would know.”
The events occurred on the night of April 23, 2016, when the six agents were doing citizen security control in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona) and a vehicle in which two young people were traveling fled the area, at about 65 kilometers per hour. , and a chase began in which his vehicle ended up hitting a concrete structure.
The victims offered no resistance to arrest
After the accident, according to the Court, the six agents who were in control, “with the intention of undermining the physical, psychological and moral integrity” of the two boys, who offered no resistance, punched and kicked them in the face, head and body to punish them for having fled.
In addition, they humiliated and intimidated them by saying things like “we could kill you and no one here would find out”, tearing a heavy loudspeaker out of the trunk and dropping it on the ground next to them to scare them, and cutting one of the car seatbelts, with which they hit them using the buckle area.
Due to these events, one of the youngsters suffered an episode of severe anxiety and fear, which triggered a psychotic episode in April of that year, while the other lost 90% of his visual acuity in one eye and also required psychiatric treatment.
The Court, which highlights the “surprising parsimony” with which the Prosecutor’s Office limited its accusation to two crimes of injury, attributes to the six agents the crimes of torture and aggravated injuries due to gross negligence and treachery, for which it imposes one of the defendants 5 years and one month in prison and 4 years of disqualification and the other five a sentence of 4 years in prison and 4 years of disqualification.
Indemnities
The Court, which places the Generalitat as subsidiary civil liability, orders the agents to compensate one of the defendants with 10,575 euros for injuries and sequelae and the second with 39,394 euros, as well as another 20,000 euros for each of them for non-pecuniary damage, since “the situation experienced, seeing themselves physically attacked, intimidated and harassed at the hands of the public force undoubtedly supposes a serious affectation that must be repaired or compensated”.
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According to the Court, in this case, one can speak of “torture” because the agents acted “abusing” their position and, once the vehicle was stopped after the accident, without the young people offering resistance, since one had even stood up. knees on the ground “to show their absolute willingness to cooperate”, they used an “inexplicable excess of violence” and beat, humiliated, and intimidated them in a “totally unnecessary and gratuitous” way.
In addition, it points out that among the defendants was a sergeant who, because he was the person in charge, was able to stop the attack at any time. But not only did nobody even try, the sentence states, but the agents “joined the action with a certain ‘exhilaration‘”, since the two boys said that they saw that the agents “were enjoying themselves”, that they were laughing and that they made fun of them.