Protesters demand fair trial for immigrants accused of violence against police
Kusai Kedri
Press TV, Girona
Protesters and civil society leaders have gathered in front of the courthouse of Girona, in the north Catalonia to demand justice for two young immigrants who stand trial for alleged acts of violence against law-enforcement personnel. The two defendants have denied all charges. They have been in jail without bail since October 2019.
Police actions have come under public scrutiny everywhere these days and for this crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the Girona courthouse in the north of Catalonia, there is considerable room for improvement of their own law-enforcement.
Protesters and civil society leaders in Catalonia believe the police and regional authorities are behind the wrongful conviction of a couple of immigrants who stand trial for allegedly throwing stones at a police van. A claim the two 18 year-old defendants who face long jail terms have vehemently denied.
The facts date back to the morning of October 17, 2019. Catalonia was in the grips of widespread protests following Spain's Top court's sentencing of the region's pro-independence leaders to up to 13 years in jail.
Moroccan-born Ibrahim Afkir and Charaf Fadlaoui were arrested by plainclothes policemen after law enforcement officers claimed they threw stones at a police van. A judge has ordered them be held in pre-trial detention because they represented a flight risk.
The olidarity group backing the defendants believe the Spanish justice will eventually set them free for lack of evidence but even if acquitted the two young immigrants can still be deported according to Spanish immigration law.
On the first day of the trial only one of the two police officers who testified before court said he could positively identify the two defendants.
Ibrahim and Charaf have the odds stacked up against them: their fate seemingly sealed with a conviction that raises more questions than it answers. A blatant case of systemic racism for the defense and another testing ground for the Spanish justice.
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