The Police Internal Affairs service investigated the National Police agent accused of torturing an immigrant and mistreating another at the Temporary Foreigner Care Center (CATE) in Lanzarote on January 1, 2024, considering "serious and of a criminal nature" the complaints reported by his colleagues about those events.
This has been declared by a head of one of the groups of the aforementioned police unit before the Audiencia de Las Palmas during the trial held this Tuesday against the accused, who is testifying for the first time about these events and has assured that "never" has he had "physical contact with immigrants."
According to the defendant's version, things "did not happen as the witnesses relate", who are the victims, three police officers and an interpreter.
In the case of the migrant person who they say he slapped when he was interrogating him in room number 15 of the CATE to try to find out who had organized the trip of the dinghy in which he had arrived at the island, what happened was heard by the colleague who was with him and an interpreter.
Both corroborated this to the court this Tuesday, but the accused maintains that what he did was give a "slap in the air" because the immigrant "was falling half asleep".
As for the other victim, who claims that he and another colleague received blows to the face and kicks, the defendant has argued that their testimonies have "no logic".
However, prosecutor Jorge Pobre has not believed his version and has asked the court to convict him because the evidence presented is "conclusive" and allows to sustain a request for three years in prison and disqualification from public employment or office for 13 years.
The Public Prosecutor's Office has asked the court to consider as an indication the recording of the statement of the two victims before the court that investigated the case in Arrecife, as it had not been presented as pre-constituted evidence, and has stressed that there is direct evidence such as that of the other police officer who was with the defendant in the room.
He heard the blow and identified it as a slap and saw how the immigrant put his hands to his face, according to what he has declared, and his version is corroborated by that of the interpreter, who also heard it and saw how the accused raised his hand, the prosecutor has indicated, who added that these statements coincide with what CATE agents communicated to Internal Affairs, which transferred the investigation to the Court.
The prosecutor has explained that the third immigrant who was assaulted by the accused has not been included in his brief because his statement could not be taken in court as he was in France at that time.
He/She/It has stressed that the conditions for torture are met because suffering was caused to the victim and the accused took advantage of his position to obtain information with ill-treatment.
The other crime for which it accuses, it also considers proven because the victim states in court that she received a slap and kicks upon leaving the bathroom and in the context of the aggressions of the accused "has weight to support the accusation".
The defense alleges "fraud of law"
The Police officer's defense has invalidated the recordings because he could not intervene in the statement of the two victims, since they were carried out in February and his client was arrested in March 2024, and has alleged that it would be "a fraud of law" to take them into account as the prosecutor claims.
It has also pointed out that the investigation was declared secret by the court but there is no order that so determines it.
About the crime of torture, the lawyer has wondered which version the court will keep, if with that of the migrant who says that there were two slaps that he received from the accused when he was interrogating him or with that of the interpreter and that of the police.
Likewise, he has argued that the identification of his client is confusing because they state that the Police Officer who assaulted them had a beard and was stocky, a description that does not match the accused.
Furthermore, he has remarked that there are no medical reports in the case, which is why he has concluded that the Public Prosecutor's Office "has bought this film and has had to escalate seriousness to obtain a conviction", and that in any case what there could have been was a minor offense of physical abuse with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superiority. "In this case there is no impairment of moral integrity", the lawyer has emphasized.
