Amnesty for Spanish police officers
The 46 Spanish police officers who faced charges for attacking and mistreating voters on October 1, 2017 in Barcelona have been amnestied. Three weeks after the amnesty law came into force, the judge of the 7th investigative court of Barcelona, Francesc Miralles, has applied the law and has extinguished his criminal liability, although not his civil liability. According to the judge’s resolution, most of the agents’ actions caused ‘non-serious injuries’, which is contemplated in the amnesty law. Furthermore, the judge argues that the police actions were of short duration and were framed within a defined police objective, without extending beyond the entrance and exit of the polling stations. Therefore, none of the agents’ actions exceeded the seriousness threshold to be excluded from the amnesty, as established by law.
Amnesty and opposition requests
The defenses of 9 of the 46 prosecuted agents were the first to request amnesty, arguing that they had not committed any crime, since they acted under the mandate of the judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) who ordered to stop the referendum of self-determination of Catalonia. According to the amnesty law, all police actions to stop any illegal action will be amnesty. However, Òmnium Cultural, Irídia and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), who appeared as a private and popular accusation, opposed the amnesty, arguing that those responsible for police brutality against citizens cannot benefit, since that this is incompatible with the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The judge’s resolution can be appealed before the Barcelona Court.
Application of amnesty
Judge Francesc Miralles is the second judge to apply the amnesty law. On the other hand, the Supreme Court has ruled that it cannot apply the amnesty to the crime of embezzlement related to the 1-O referendum. Furthermore, Judge Pablo Llarena has maintained the arrest warrant against former president Carles Puigdemont, who is in exile.
Opposition to amnesty
The human rights entities that have appeared in the case argue that the amnesty cannot be applied to police officers, since their actions were not aimed at preventing criminal or administrative violations, as permitted by law. According to these entities, Section 3 of the Barcelona Court has already resolved that the citizens who were at the polling stations on October 1, 2017 did not commit any criminal conduct. In addition, these entities remind the judge that in a previous order it was found that there was a plurality of gratuitous and unjustified conduct on the part of the investigated agents, especially those of the Camel 1 operational group, who acted in twenty voting centers with the purpose to punish, humiliate or degrade the affected people. These actions are excluded from the amnesty.
