Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

The Government of Navarre recognises as a victim Mikel Iribar, wounded by a smoke pot

  • The National Police has obtained the recognition of a public institution after 31 years in Pamplona, where it was seriously wounded with a smoke pot and burned in 1991. The Spanish Government also had to pay compensation, but no police have been punished for the case of the aggression.

05 July 2024 - 12:54
Mikel Iribarren Ahotsa.infoko elkarrizketa batean.

A demonstration against the dispersal of prisoners took place in Pamplona in December 1991 and the Spanish police launched against it in the Customs Corner, in the Casco Viejo de Pamplona. A smoke pot thrown by a police officer shattered Mikel Iribarren's face at the age of 18. He arrived in a coma at the Hospital Complex of Navarra, where a total of 459 days of observation and transfer to the Hospital Complex remained in hospital. He is currently suffering the consequences of that attack and in 2010 he was recognized as an absolute permanent incapacity.

The case became known throughout Euskal Herria and his name has appeared for years in the few media that have echoed his case, as the case also lasted for years. The criminal judicial route had come to an end in 1994 and Iribarren then asked the Spanish Government for a civil liability, which was rejected by the then Minister of the Interior, Jaime Mayor Oreja. The National Court, however, obliged the Spanish Government to compensate the victim, who is a Portuguese national, with EUR 60,000.

However, in 2003, the Spanish Supreme Court annulled the judgment by considering that the young person was in the demonstration voluntarily and that he should therefore assume the risk that had been raised; the police determined that he had launched the smoke pot in a proportionate manner. That same year, the Spanish Constitutional Court confirmed the judgment.

Iribarren then addressed Europe and in 2009 the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Spanish Government for the case and imposed compensation of EUR 170,000. The steps taken so far are the main steps of the judicial route, the most concrete steps taken can be read in this chronology elaborated in its day by Naiz.

Now, as it has recently done with other victims, the Commission of Knowledge and Reparation of the Government of Navarra has analysed the case of Iribarren and concluded that the police are the victim of violence: “The Police did not take into account the risk of death and did not intervene later to minimize its consequences.” However, the Spanish Government, despite acknowledging the conviction of the Strasbourg Court, has not identified the Spanish police which fired last Saturday.


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