Five days of trial and no one disputes who shot Roger Español

The trial of four Spanish National Police officers for maiming Roger Español’s eye on 1 October 2017 has concluded at the Barcelona Provincial Court, and the verdict is now pending.

From 16 September to 2 October, the Barcelona Provincial Court heard the case against the riot gunner, the inspector and the two deputy inspectors of the Spanish National Police charged over the rubber bullet that maimed Roger Español at the Ramon Llull school on the day of the 1 October 2017 referendum.

Nine years on, and after five days of trial, no one disputes who fired the shot. Neither the Public Prosecutor’s Office, nor the State Attorney’s Office, nor the officer’s own lawyer has questioned who pulled the trigger. The trial has concluded and the court must now decide whether that shot was legitimate. For us, it clearly was not.

Roger Español is the private prosecutor in the case, with legal coordination by Irídia, which is also a party as popular prosecutor alongside Òmnium Cultural and the Assemblea Nacional Catalana. The prosecution is seeking sentences of up to 13 years in prison and disqualification from office for each of the accused.

This is the only trial over police violence on 1 October, a day on which more than a thousand people were injured. The verdict will therefore matter far beyond Roger’s case: it must determine whether the use of rubber bullets against people exercising their fundamental rights can go unpunished, and it may set a precedent for police accountability and for the debate on banning these weapons.

Getting here has been extremely hard, and the process does not end with the trial: possible appeals and further legal action still lie ahead. You can support Roger and help cover the costs of the proceedings at justiciaroger.cat.