The Barcelona Court has sentenced a young Scottish resident of the Catalan capital to five years and one month in prison for altercations during the protests against the imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasel on February 17 last year.
The sentence considers it proven that he moved containers on Gran Via and threw stones at the Mossos during a demonstration that began in the Jardinets de Gràcia.
The court gives credibility to the testimony of two Mossos agents and condemns the young man for the crimes of altercations and attack against the authority with the aggravating circumstance of dangerous instrument, because he was carrying a skateboard. The young man was arrested on the second night of incidents due to the protests along with some thirty other people.
The boy was in preventive detention for a month on the grounds that the United Kingdom is a country outside the European Union since Brexit and there was a risk of flight.
The sentence is one year and 4 months for the crime of public disorder, and 3 years and 9 months for the crime of attack against authority. In the sentence, the court has rejected the request of the Prosecutor's Office that requested that the accused be expelled from Spain.
The defense of William Aitken, from Alerta Solidaria, says that he will appeal the sentence, describes the sentence as disproportionate and maintains that in the trial there were contradictions with other Mossos agents. "We cannot understand the forcefulness in condemning for an attack, and with the aggravating circumstance of disguise, when there is no evidence of any injured police officer, no damage to any vehicle, equipment or furniture, no stone or object that would have been thrown. Only, once again , the word of the police against ours is recorded," says Solidarity Alert in a statement.
