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INPRIMATU
A judge says the loss of the eye was the fault of the girl who participated in the demonstration
  • In 2021, the girl participated in a demonstration against the arrest of musician rap Pablo Hasel in Barcelona and lost her eye by a foam bullet launched by the mossos. The judge considers that the girl “should take the consequences” for participating in a demonstration in a conflict.
Xabier Letona Biteri @xletona 2024ko maiatzaren 24a
Osasun zerbitzuak zauritutako neska artatzen, mossoek foam balez zauritu ondoren. (Argazkia: Público / Paula Ericsson)

The newspaper El País has obtained an order from Judge Joaquín Aguirre of the First Examining Court of Barcelona on the matter, in which the facts can be read. Aguirre believes that the victim “was put at risk” and that the mosses that fired there was no recklessness or intent to harm, but acted proportionally, even more so when some protesters acted with “extreme aggressiveness”. For all this, the judge records the complaint filed by the girl.

According to the Iridia Center, which bears the popular charge in the lawsuit, the case has been filed “too early” and is also “inadequate”. During the instruction they are said to be signs of criminality, both because of the mosses they fired and because of the sergeant who ordered them to shoot.

According to the appeal brought by the popular accusation, the mosses did not respect the internal protocol of precision projectiles. They therefore consider that torture may also be a crime, or alternatively a crime against moral integrity.

The appeal also states that when the victim went in the opposite direction to the officers who had seriously injured her: “The distance between them also prevented any type of police attack”, so there was no “danger” to the police or other protesters. Therefore, the accusation believes that there was an “illegal” use of force by the mosses.

So is mutilation fair?

This Thursday her father has read the letter of the girl who has lost her eye and there the girl regrets that the judge considers “fair” her “mutilation”: “Does this mean that going out to demonstrate on the street is not safe? That is, if you are left-wing, independentist, if you go against what they want, you will end the mutilated, it seems that the judge means that to us.”