Public prosecutors have dropped the charges of public disorder against six of the so-called "Lledoners Nine" group of Catalan pro-independence protesters. The prosecutors have also reduced the accusation of causing injury to a misdemeanor, although they continue to maintain the accusation of assault on authority. In the final stretch of the two-day trial, the prosecution has taken a step back. Today the trial has been completed, ready for the judge's verdict, after final statements from the defendants. It was in the final conclusions that the judge declared that six of the nine protesters charged in the case had been absolved, given the prosecution's decision to withdraw its accusations.
The trial, which relates to events during a protest outside Lledoners prison on February 1st, 2019 when the seven pro-independence political prisoners in the jail were transferred to Madrid for their trial, began yesterday with the hearing of witnesses. The vast majority were Mossos d'Esquadra riot police who described the actions that took place outside the prison, but were unable to recognize the defendants as the perpetrators. The agents explained that that morning, oil was spilled on the C-55 highway, the access road to the access to the Lledoners prison, barricades were constructed from palets, and incorporating spikes and a padlocked chain, to prevent the political prisoners from being taken to Madrid. Three of the defendants had been previously identified, they said; the other six were not asked for their ID until after the incidents. Among the police witnesses is a corporal awaiting trial for a racist assault, who has currently been suspended from the Mossos riot squad.
In the final summings-up, the prosecution dropped its charges against the six defendants who had only been facing charges of public disorder. As the judge of criminal court number 1 in the town of Manresa made clear, six of the nine defendants will thus be acquitted of the so-called 'Lledoners Nine' case. For the other three, however, the public attorney maintains the alleged offences of assault on public authority. "Even though the police did not see the people who hit them, they assert that they saw these defendants in the front line," the prosecutor explained. As for the crime of causing injury, he downgraded it slightly considering that they only needed "first aid." Thus, the sentence requested by the prosecution for the three defendants is now 5 years in prison and a fine of 1,080 euros.
For its part, the Catalan government, which has a much-criticised private prosecution in defence of the police officers, is maintaining its accusation against these same three defendants for alleged assault on authority, but it has reduced its accusation of assault causing serious injury to one of mild injury. The public disorder accusations against all three have been withdrawn as there was no "alteration to the public peace." In total, the government of the Generalitat demands 6 months' prison and a fine of 720 euros for each of the three.
Meanwhile, the defence lawyers for the three defendants call for their acquittal. David Aranda, lawyer for one of the remaining three defendants, denounced that what was on trial was "the right to mobilization and freedom of expression." "It has been a grotesque trial, with the Mossos showing selective memory... unfortunately [the defendants] have been tried only for being in a given place at a given time," he complained. Although her clients have all been acquitted, the Solidarity Alert lawyer, Eva Pous, described the trial as a "farce". “We celebrate that they cannot be convicted, but there are still three people unjustifiably charged based on evidence that does not exist,” she lamented.
Support from the political prisoners
The trial, which began on Tuesday, began with criticism from those accused against the Catalan government for not dropping out of the case. Lawyer Eva Pous recalled that the case began when Junts led the government of Catalonia and continued when ERC took the leadership of the executive, without the Catalan administration making any gesture on the accusations. Josep Rossell, a lawyer representing other defendants, also criticized the action of the Generalitat, which he said was calling for "unjust" and "disproportionate" sentences.
Three of the now-released political prisoners who were being transferred to Madrid on the day of the incidents in 2019, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull and Jordi Cuixart, were present at the court in Manresa this Wednesday morning to support the Lledoners Nine. Former Catalan minister of the presidency Jordi Turull asked the current government to withdraw its accusation against the Nine, to avoid giving ammunition to the prosecutor's office and the judiciary in their "repression" of the pro-independence movement, "especially given the lack of evidence that has been presented", he added.
For his part, CUP deputy Xavier Pellicer, who was also outside the doors of the Manresa court, called for "less political opportunism, fewer words" and more "actions" to "avoid what in the eyes of the whole society is nonsense", as are the private accusations of the Catalan government "against protesters". Pellicer asked that in the case of the Lledoners Nine, the government should drop its private prosecution and should also do the same in the "more than 40 cases" in which the Catalan administration is opposed to pro-independence activists. “These are the facts, all the rest are mere words lost in the wind,” he lamented.
Catalan government spokesperson Patrícia Platja said yesterday that the administration was "again" studying its legal position service on the case. She noted, however, that there are police officers who sustained injuries during the protests to try to prevent the transfer of prisoners from the Lledoners prison process to the Supreme Court in Madrid.