The judge of the National audience Manuel García Castellón has no intention of renouncing the accusations made in the procedure. Neither to those who carry out the popular accusation (Vox and Dignidad y Justicia), nor to that of the police officers who were injured in the mobilizations called by Democratic Tsunami. In an order he has once again rejected the request of the accused Oriol Soler to remove officers who were seriously injured with the argument that they were not due to the responsibility of the platform.
In his order, the magistrate explains that Soler “claims, in essence, that The events by which the national police officers were injured are not the subject of this procedureand that therefore they lack legitimacy to appear.” The businessman alleges this, along the same lines as other defendants, such as Marta Molina, who already argued that the agents had been injured by the CDR, not by Tsunami Democràtic, therefore that no responsibility for the injuries suffered could be attributed to the accused in this case. The prosecutor assigned to the case, Miguel Ángel Carballo, has joined the arguments of the accused and considers that the judge is confusing phenomena.
“Homicidal mood”
By “procedural economy” Garcia Castellon refers to what was already agreed on January 24 when rejecting a similar request from Molina, in which he said he did not rule out the “homicidal mood” in the agents’ aggressors and therefore in the accused and in the accused pending the Supreme Court’s ruling. In his resolution, the magistrate reminds the defense that they can appeal to the Criminal Chamber, an option that Soler’s defense, exercised by Benet Salellas, has already announced that he will continue so that the last word goes to a court made up of three magistrates and not the head of the Central Court of Instruction number 6.
In January, the magistrate identified the injuries suffered by the police officers in the altercations that occurred on October 18, 2019 in Plaza de Urquinaona and Vía Laietana in Barcelona. He rejected Molina’s argument that these riots were not were attributable to Tsunami Democràtic but to the CDR, “as if the presence of some totally displaces the responsibility of others”, because the platform “it was not a stone ‘guest'” and the attack occurred in the context of the general strike that he had called. “We thought that the sentence was the end of a movement and it has been its restart. Today we blocked the country to remember a solution and exercise our rights and freedoms,” Tsunami announced then.
The judge considered it especially striking how incriminating clue the conversation between the former president Puigdemont and one of those investigated, in which the first “seems to assume the possibility that fatalities could have occurredand its capacity, while held control of the action, to stop this possibility”.
The judge emphasized the severity of injuries suffered by police officers which, in the case of one of them, were caused by a strong blow to the upper part of the regulation helmet, which broke, caused by a blunt object thrown by one of the participants in the demonstrations. As a result of the brutality of the impact, the police officer collapsed to the ground, unconscious, suffering a series of injuries that have made him unable to practice his profession.
“Since no investigative procedure has been carried out, the injured party has not been heard, nor forensic reports have been made, it cannot be inferred whether due to the type of object thrown, the place where the impact was received, the position of the aggressor or any other another concurrent peripheral circumstance, could an intention to injure or murder is appreciated“said the resolution.
It is clear, said the judge, “that the result of this action was very serious injuries, a harmful result that the investigation must investigate if it is objectively attributable to the action of Tsunami and its organizers”.