Barcelona, wild beating and groundless arrests out of a squatted building.
The passed weekend, there was a two day action against Tortures in Barcelona
The story starts at 6:30 Saturday morning in front of a squatted building (ex theater) in “SANT PERE MES BAIX” street at the old part of Barcelona city, where a party was taking place. The local public police arrived around 5 in the area, “claiming” that there is a problem with the noise, but instead of asking the people (organizers) to stop the party, they started beating really hard the people that was outside and the people that were just passing outside the building. Additionally a police officer by overreacting (!) shot 3 times against the mass.
In a little while, the “MOSSOS D'ESQUADRA”(the cops) arrived as well, and arrested without a particular reason 9 persons.
Initially, according to the media and the city’s mayor, a cop was seriously injured by a pot plant that fell out of the theater’s balcony. (!) Off course, that wasn’t enough to charge the arrested people, so after a few hours the media and the official sources stopped talking about a pot plant. They were now talking about ONE rock that was thrown by TWO of the arrested persons (at the same time, they threw it together).
According to witnesses one of the arrested, after they locked his hands, was beaten by 8 cops in the middle of the road. Until 19:30 of the next morning his was disappeared and nobody was giving information about where he was held and if he was ok. Two of the arrested were transferred to the hospital and another guy is with a broken arm.
The noon of the next day, the neighborhood of Santa Caterina was for once more a “cop state”. They surrounded the whole area, disturbing all the social centers that exist there and making no reason custodies of anyone that could accidentally pass that point. What is interesting is that the area is characterized by an opposition movement of the residents against the mayor’s and some technical firms’ profitable plans.
3 of the 9 people are imprisoned in the ‘LA MODELO” prison of Barcelona charged of trying to assassinate (the injured cop) and of resisting to the authorities. The only elements for the court are the witnesses of the police officers that took action that night. In addition, media and authorities are trying to criminalize the “squat” movement and the struggle of the self organized spaces.
Free translation from http://athens.indymedia.org/display.php?articleId=8070