All protesters ‘had a violent attitude’ claim testifying Spanish police officers

Spanish Guardia Civil officers told the court of the violence they experienced from Catalan voters on referendum day in 2017 in day 25 of the Catalan trial today.

The police officers, who remain anonymous for legal reasons, took part in operations to dismantle the referendum logistics on the day of the vote and testified about the “violent attitude” of civilians towards them.

The first testifying officer claimed that “all people [at the polling station] had a violent attitude,” and criticized the “passive” behavior of the Catalan police while their Spanish counterparts were being “attacked.”

The courtroom president Manuel Marchena intervened in a verbal row between Jordi Pina, one of the defense lawyers, and Javier Ortega-Smith, one of the public prosecutors from the far-right Vox party.

The testifying Spanish police officer claimed in court he didn’t attack any civilian during the operations, nor did he see any of his colleagues do similar.

Another Spanish Guardia Civil officer recounted the incident when he was punched in the mouth by a voter, and said: “They stole my helmet, I was kicked and scraped.”

Afternoon session

In the afternoon session, more than a dozen more police officers will take to the stand to give their accounts of what happened on Oct 1, 2017.