The Provincial Court has reversed a six-month prison sentence for crime of attack that imposed a criminal court on the woman who was beaten by two national policemen While they arrested her last March in Benidorm, during the curfew due to the covid. The arrest was recorded by a Benidorm neighbor and the video broadcast on social networks led to the opening of a disciplinary file that even led to the Cessation of job and salary of the agents involved. A court of the Audiencia has now annulled said penalty by having “well-founded doubts” about the concurrence of the use of force or resistance, necessary to consider the facts a crime of attack.
The Second Section has questioned whether there was a crime of attack as it was declared proven in a first sentence of a Criminal Court of Benidorm and recalls that the presumption of veracity that the police have in administrative matters cannot be considered.
The judgment of the Second Section indicates that in this type of case, where the agent is involved as a victim or as an active subject, the principle that police demonstrations are a crime is not acceptable. “Full and objective evidence of the charge, destroying the presumption of innocence by itself, taking into account the quality, by reason of its condition of agent of the authority, of the same”.
The woman, a 39-year-old Swiss citizen, was tried in Benidorm and sentenced to six months in prison as the perpetrator of the crime of attacking an agent of the authority, a ruling that was appealed by both the defense of the accused and the prosecution. particular.
The events occurred at 10:15 p.m. on March 24, 2021 on the Paseo de Colón in Benidorm, when the covid restrictions were in force and there was a curfew. The criminal court number 2 of Benidorm considered it proven that the defendant pounced “With manifest contempt for the authority of the agent” about a national policeman who was circulating on his motorcycle, which caused him to lose his balance when trying to avoid it and get into the pedestrian zone of Elche Park. The officer then left the motorcycle on the ground while the defendant ran towards him and “Making a gesture with the hand with the intention of attacking him.”
This account of the facts of the first sentence has now been modified in the appeal sentence by the Provincial Court and instead of noting that the woman addressed the agent’s authority with contempt and that a manager attacked her, the new ruling specifies that the accused “He headed suddenly” towards the policeman and simply performed a “Wave with the hand.”
What neither the Benidorm court nor the Alicante Court has considered credited is that the policeman fell to the ground with his motorcycle after losing his balance and that the defendant again pounced on the agent “kicking and slapping him.” Nor do they consider it proven that he then “attacked” again against the same policeman and another agent accompanying him, both of which reduced the woman.
In the legal bases of the sentence, the court also highlights the corrections made in the trial by the agents regarding their initial statements in the report. “They are not entirely in accordance with the reality that can be seen in the video recordings,” says the recent ruling of the Court. It also indicates that it cannot be seen in the images that the defendant pushed the police officer when he was riding on his motorcycle or that he subsequently tipped him “Some blow, kick or punch.” On the other hand, adds the Hearing, it is possible to see in the images the blows and kicks that the detainee received before being reduced.
Files filed after a video recorded by a neighbor
The two national police officers who detained the woman now cleared by the Court were videotaped by a neighbor as they detained and beat her. Its dissemination led to the opening of files to the agents, who were suspended from employment and salary. The Spanish Confederation of Police (CEP) union criticized said suspension of employment and salary, considering that they are two agents with an impeccable record and it was “a political decision” to “satisfy some sector of society.”
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.