The Spanish government has provided an explanation for a mysterious detail relating to Catalonia's 2017 independence referendum and, in particular, to the Supreme Court trial of 12 Catalan leaders, whose verdict is currently pending. The question is: why did Civil Guard officers leave long-barrelled weapons in their empty vehicle, parked all day in the midst of a large pro-independence protest on 20th September, 2017?
The official answer, provided in writing by the government, is that such weapons are standard equipment taken in a police vehicle on a mission, and they "are only removed if they should be needed".
This was the Spanish government's answer to a written question from Basque deputy in the Spanish Congress, Jon Iñarritu, of the EH Bildu party, who asked for an explanation of this controversial detail of the Civil Guard action that day. Iñarritu posted the response he received on Twitter, adding further questions that the explanation gave rise to: "And what if the officers needed the weapons once they were away from the car? ... The fact that the car was open and no-one was watching over it will also be explained, won't it?" asked Iñarritu ironically.
El Gobierno dice q ls GC q entraron al Dep. d Economía el 20-9-2017 dejaron sus armas largas en ls 🚓 ya q “solamente se extraen en caso de necesidad”.
— Jon Inarritu (@JonInarritu) 15 de setembre de 2019
- y si ls necesitaran estando fuera?
- Lo d ls 🚓 abiertos y sin custodia ya lo explicarán, ¿no? #PreguntasParlamentarias pic.twitter.com/ra2A3G3xN7
The Civil Guard action in leaving high-powered weapons in a vehicle which was open, parked in the midst of a large protest crowd, and was gradually subject to vandalism during the day-long protest, has led to speculation that it was evidence of recklessness, incompetence, or even of a conspiracy to incite violence from the demonstrators.
The question of violence that day is a key one since the major charge against nine of the 12 pro-independence leaders now awaiting their verdict is rebellion, which is defined as a violent uprising. In particular, the rebellion charges against civil group leaders Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart rest heavily on the events on that 20th September 2017 in Barcelona’s Rambla Catalunya, but virtually no evidence of violence during those events was presented at the Supreme Court trial, apart from vandalism to the Civil Guard vehicles parked there.