Five officers from the Torrevieja Guardia Civil have been charged with crimes of torture, injury, falsification of documents and omission of a duty to pursue crimes. The Prosecutor’s Office has requested five years in prison (two years for torture and three years for inflicting injuries) and disqualification from public employment for ten years for each of them, while there is a further private prosecution that requests an additional three years for falsehood in document.
The judge has now heard statements from all the accused, the complainant, two civil guard witnesses, the girlfriend of one of the officers and a doctor. Evidence is still to be declared by a forensic officer, more witnesses and an expert. The defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
The complaint dates back to 11 October 2009, when one of the defendants, an agent of the Civil Guard who was in plain clothes, had an altercation with the complainant and a companion. According to the Prosecutor he shouted “F***ing foreigners, you are always bothering us and making a fuss.”
From there, an argument began and the Civil Guard, allegedly, punched and kicked the complainant several times in the face. He shouted “You do not know who I am,” as a resident in the building, hearing the screams, saw what happened as he looked out of a window.
Both the individual who had been assaulted and his companion fled the scene, while the police office went to the Civil Guard barracks in search of two companions. The three agents then located the victim and his colleague, arresting them both for resistance to authority.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office they continued to beat the first complainant “shouting at him “This happens to you when you try to kill a Civil Guard”. They took him to a cell where the kicks and punches were repeated, while they said, “You have made the worst mistake of your life”.
They are also alleged to have further beaten him while he was being transferred to Torrevieja hospital for treatment to his injuries.
As a result, the complainant suffered a broken disc, neck and back pain, cuts and broken ribs. He was unable to return to work for almost 2 months.
The Prosecutor’s Office believes that the three agents, in collusion with two others, assaulted the complainant before the arrest, during his detention and again in jail.
