The Minister of the Interior of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Joan Ignasi Elena, has announced the suspension of employment and salary for the six agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra convicted of torturing two young people who skipped a police control in 2016 in Cerdanyola.
This has been communicated by the minister in an appearance before the media, who has announced that his ministry, "after hearing the sentence, has opened a file to the mossos, who have been suspended from employment and salary."
In a sentence notified this March 23, the Court of Barcelona has sentenced six agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra who on April 23, 2016 tortured, assaulted , intimidated and humiliated in a "totally free and unjustified" way two young people who fled from a police control in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona).
The Internal Affairs Division (DAI) of the Mossos, which is in charge of investigating malpractice within the body, had no knowledge of this case until the sentence was released, as sources from the ministry point out to the EFE agency , despite the fact that the Department of the Interior has figured in the procedure as subsidiary civil liability.
Of the six convicted mossos, two are not currently serving in the Catalan police, since one of them is on leave and the other is suspended from employment and salary for another case, according to the same sources.
The other four agents have continued to serve in the force during all these years, without any of them -or the other two either- having had a file opened or any disciplinary measure applied to them for this case of torture.
Once the Court of Barcelona officially notifies the sentence to the Ministry of the Interior -probably this Friday-, a file will be opened to the six convicted mossos, to whom, when the legal services have analyzed the resolution, precautionary measures will be applied - because the sentence is not yet firm-, which are expected to be forceful.
In the sentence, the seventh section of the Court of Barcelona considers that in this case all the elements are present "to be able to speak of torture" 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 a 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.
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 mossos 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.
"The performance was joint, concordant and adhesive, adding to it in a staggered manner as the defendants arrived at the scene, which functioned with a certain distribution of functions, pre-existing a tacit agreement assumed on the spot by all those present, addressed to humiliate, assault and terrorize the two young people, plausibly in retaliation for their previous conduct", underlines the sentence.
