The commissioner of the National Police in Arrecife, Raimundo Villanueva, defended this Wednesday the agent of that force [ questioned by the Bar Association ->6254] for "undignified treatment" of some lawyers and detainees, and has criticized harshly the dean of said Association for the letter he has submitted requesting the transfer of the police officer in question. This opens an unprecedented confrontation in history between a top representative of the National Police on the island and the entity that groups and represents all Lanzarote lawyers.
Villanueva stated, in statements to the program "Buenos días, Lanzarote", on Radio Lanzarote, that the police officer in question has an exemplary conduct, and considered that the note presented by the Bar Association in the Insular Directorate of Government and the Provincial Police Headquarters pursues "interests that I will explain after meeting with them", and spoke of a "corporate" attitude of "five or six lawyers" on the island, who are the ones who have questioned the actions of that police officer, who is part of the Group against Small and Medium Drug Trafficking.
In the letter in question, the Bar Association maintains that an officer of the National Police has incurred in a repeated treatment that he describes as "inadequate" and "undignified" towards some detainees and their legal representatives, and recounts some cases in which lawyers have maintained that they have felt fear for the actions of this agent during the taking of statements from their representatives. These facts were brought to the attention of the Association, which then presented the aforementioned letter to the Insular Directorate of the State administration in Lanzarote.
However, Raimundo Villanueva maintained that those who have had improper attitudes and not in accordance with the law during these procedures "have been those lawyers, and the police officers have recorded this in the corresponding proceedings." Therefore, the commissioner considered that it is a campaign against him, and criticized the Bar Association for having presented its complaint "through political channels and without meeting with us first".
"Holding an interview with me is the least that the Bar Association should have done, and not a mock interview as the president of the Association intends to assert. When the president of the Lanzarote Bar Association comes to talk to me, he makes a lightning visit in which he comes to ask me to 'cut off the head' of this police officer just because, without explaining why," the commissioner said.
Doubts
In turn, Villanueva questioned the veracity of what was stated by the lawyers who reported an alleged inadequate treatment at the Police Station. "I find it hard to believe that a lawyer who is in a police station to defend the rights of detainees does not record what is happening in the statement, and that it is the police officer himself who records the improper attitude of one lawyer, of another, of another, all this in a period of very few weeks, because they have gone one after another trying to discredit this police officer who rather exposed them. If there is any coercion, any threat, any contravention of the rights of detainees, the logical thing is that it be brought to the attention of the judge. I don't know any lawyer who doesn't advise his client to do that first. A lawyer who is poor, scared to death in front of some police officers and a detainee, I find it hard to believe that he didn't immediately go to the Courts to say what was happening to him," he said.
The commissioner also stated that the Bar Association "limits itself to writing a letter through political channels, which they don't even present to me at the Police Station, but to the Insular Directorate, so that they can raise it to my boss, and that my boss reproaches me to transfer a police worker. How can they expect me to violate the rights of a worker? Because of the attitude of five or six lawyers, who I don't know what ends they are pursuing, that they tell me from one day to the next to transfer an official... Don't workers have rights here?".
Raimundo Villanueva also highlighted that "they intend to give the image of a repressive and gloomy Police Station, which fortunately has not been seen in any police station in Spain for years, and is worthy of suspense or horror comics. You can't go through the press saying that this Police Station is as they say it is and that the commissioner is allowing a situation of exaggerated violence". Therefore, he considered that the letter presented by the Bar Association "is presented against me".
Villanueva also announced that on the afternoon of this Wednesday he will meet with the president of the Bar Association to discuss this issue, and that after that meeting, he will announce the reasons why, in his opinion, that institution has presented the aforementioned letter. At the same time, the commissioner denied the statements of the president of the Association regarding the fact that this association had never had any problems in its relations with the National Police Station in Arrecife. "That there is no problem with the Bar Association, I can tell you and I will present it with evidence, that there was, and it has been dragging on for some time, and I am precisely the one who is trying to change and reconvene this situation, this attitude of some lawyers before the Police Station, which for whatever reason, is not the most appropriate," the commissioner said.
Defense of the police officer
Raimundo Villanueva also made a strong defense of the police officer whose conduct is questioned by the Bar Association in those radio statements. "The personality of this police officer is not distinguished in the least by his violent character. I can tell you as an example that he is proposed for the police merit cross, precisely because he and other colleagues jumped into the water in Puerto Naos to save the three people who had fallen into the sea with a car. Precisely this is the man who first jumped into the water and who most strived to save them, and he succeeded. He is also proposed for seven public congratulations for the very relevant services and with so much effort that he has made in the Group. He is also a person who is very fond of sports; he does bodybuilding, which gives an image of a 'buff guy', so to speak, of a 'muscle man', but he has a heart and a professional zeal worthy of all praise".
According to the commissioner, "that contrasts with this image that the Bar Association wants to give of this man for reasons that I will explain tomorrow [for Thursday], and that are very different from those they want to show the public".
