Spanish officers used 'minimum force required' to stop vote, former security head tells court

"The force used was the minimum required," Spain's former secretary of state for security said about the Spanish police operation to stop the October 1 independence referendum, in his testimony in the Supreme Court on Monday morning.

José Antonio Nieto was the first to testify in week 4 of the trial of Catalan independence leaders, arguing that the situation on October 1 was the "worst case scenario," as the "Catalan police did not intervene, and the level of resistance was higher than expected.”

“There were assaults against Spanish police and Guardia Civil officers," said Nieto, who also described the Catalan police intervention during the independence referendum as "insufficient, ineffective, and guided by objectives other than impeding the vote."

In fact, the former secretary of state was generally critical of the Mossos d'Esquadra, saying, "we were told that the Catalan police were enough to guarantee public order. I didn’t agree after watching images from September 20."