April 9, Day 28 of Trial
Spanish police officers involved in operations in the town of Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Vilabella and Mont-Roig del Camp said that voters “kicked and threw stones at police during the independence referendum,” which caused them several injuries.
April 10, Day 29 of Trial
– A Spanish police officer said that he was chased by “two Catalan plain-clothes-police officers wearing earbuds with microphones, in a car that was property of the presidency ministry [of Catalonia].”
– A Spanish police officer said that no joint operation with the Catalan police was considered on what polling stations they would act.
– Another police officer said that leaving the polling stations was “the most difficult part,” recalling voters hitting police vehicles and “throwing stones at the officers.”
– Another officer said he saw voters carrying “sticks, helmets, and chains.” Although he denied seeing any concrete act of violence.
April 11, Day 30 of Trial
A Spanish police officer contradicted Diego Pérez de los Cobos, chief commander of all police forces during the referendum, and Enric Millo, Spanish delegate in Catalonia during the referendum, when he said that they received an order to stop the police actions in the afternoon of the referendum.
Additional Information
On the day 28 of trial, Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said outside the Spanish Supreme Court building in Madrid that she sees the trial against the Catalan political prisoners a “grotesque abridgment of human rights.”
“By jailing the pro-independence leaders, the Spanish judiciary is already implying they are guilty. This is the message they’re sending to all people in all of Spain in addition to abridging the right of referendum. They’re abridging freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of peaceful protest,” Williams added.
On the day 30 of trial, the Supreme Court rejected a request from the Catalan political prisoners to leave prison in order to take part in the campaigns for the Spanish general election on April 28 and the local and European elections on May 26.
Josep Goded 