The Prosecutor’s Office lowers the request for a prison sentence for “undue delay” and maintains the disqualification
MADRID, 21 (EUROPA PRESS)
The former secretary of the Podemos Organization and deputy of United Podemos, Alberto Rodríguez, has assured that he is being tried for a “set-up” and not for an alleged assault on an agent of the National Police Force. As part of his defense, he denied having kicked a policeman in the knee: “It is impossible. I have never assaulted any officer.”
This has been said by the ‘purple’ leader before the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, which has tried him this Tuesday in a single session for an alleged crime of attack against an agent of the authority and another minor injury.
Rodríguez has assured in answers to his defense that he is in this case for a “sad practice” and not for attacking a policeman. As he has indicated, the investigation takes place in a context in which “there is a police setup with the intention of recriminating certain visible faces of social activism on the island.” Upon his departure from the Chamber, he clarified that “at no time” did he speak of “conspiracy.”
The facts brought before the Supreme Court, given Rodríguez’s status as a gauge, occurred on January 25, 2014 in La Laguna on the occasion of a demonstration against the then ‘popular’ minister José Ignacio Wert. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, in the framework of that protest, the now deputy allegedly kicked an agent.
After Rodríguez’s emphatic refusal to face the alleged facts, the prosecutor asked him why the alleged assaulted agent pointed him out. The leader has assured that it is something that happens “normally” and has stressed that “there are certain lists with visible profiles in social movements and when there is a demonstration of this type” they are usually pointed out.
“They want to endorse my client with a series of previous actions that could have been annoying” to the police officers, the lawyer said in reference to Rodríguez’s participation in previous demonstrations.
PROSECUTOR REDUCES THE PENALTY
In the framework of the oral hearing held this Tuesday, the Prosecutor’s Office has agreed to lower the sentence for Rodríguez for the “undue delays” in the procedure, given that the events occurred in 2014 and the trial is now taking place, seven years later. In this sense, he has set his request at three months and 10 days in prison compared to the six months in prison that he initially claimed.
He has deemed it pertinent to maintain the disqualification for passive suffrage for the time of sentence and a fine of 180 euros, as well as a compensation of 250 euros for the policeman who he allegedly kicked during a protest in La Laguna (Tenerife) in 2014.
THE AGENT CONFIRMS THE KICK
The police agent allegedly attacked in 2014 by the United Podemos deputy Alberto Rodríguez in a demonstration in San Cristóbal de La Laguna has confirmed this Tuesday in court that he kicked him in the left knee during the demonstration
“We were lining up because there were comrades reducing other detainees – during the demonstration – and their intention – that of Rodríguez – was to release other detainees. They wanted to access where they were. We kept the line, and in the feint of trying to receive the blow, “he recalled during the interrogation of the defense of the Podemos deputy.
Previously, the prosecutor has been told that other agents already knew Rodríguez from other demonstrations because he was a regular. “He went to many and we already knew him,” he recalled and then added that after the attack he decided not to arrest him because there were many people and his subgroup had to maintain their position so that the protesters did not enter the interior of the fence that separated them from the act that It was held and in which the then Minister José Ignacio Wert participated.
Asked by the defense about how long he was at the demonstration, the agent has assured that he does not remember it exactly, but has indicated that no more than 10 or 20 minutes.
In the framework of his interrogation, he pointed out that the kick allegedly given by Rodríguez was “voluntary” and that although a later medical report pointed to an injury to the finger of his right hand, he has specified that this extreme was not he remembered well and that it would be another altercation during the demonstration.
The lawyer has highlighted the “lack of certainty and specificity” in the statement of the allegedly attacked agent, which in her opinion “causes a clear defenselessness” to her client.
“AT NIGHT I DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHING”
“Didn’t he have inflammatory symptoms?” Rodríguez’s defense asked him in reference to the alleged assault on his knee, to which the agent replied that when he took off his pants, the area was “a little red and at night I no longer had anything. ” He has affirmed that he did not need five days of healing and that no forensic doctor recognized him, “only the emergency doctor.”
The doctor who treated the agent has assured questions from the defense that she cannot prove whether the “pain in the external lateral aspect of the left knee” that appears in the medical report was the result of a kick or not. “That is why we put ‘refers the patient,” he pointed out.
In the framework of the defense, Rodríguez’s lawyer has asked the court to show three videos of the demonstration in which the now deputy is seen singing songs and although the altercations in the area of the fences are also seen, the leader does not appear in those Actions. The prosecutor has assured that these recordings “lack probative value” and has insisted that they neither collect all the facts nor record the attacks received by other agents who also appear in the medical reports.
“I DIDN’T SEE HIM AT ANY TIME”
As part of the testimony, this Monday the head of the Police Intervention Unit (UIP) also gave a statement as a witness during that demonstration. The policeman, who was there from the start of the device until it ended, has assured in his interrogation that “this person who is sitting here,” referring to Rodríguez, he did not see “at any time.”
The defense has asked the head of the UIP if the agent who received the alleged assault had powers to arrest Rodríguez as a result of the kick. The witness has indicated that he did, but has clarified that “sometimes arrests are not made because they are considered inappropriate.” The lawyer has insisted that not only was he not arrested, but that he was not asked for a DNI.
Faced with the lawyer’s argument, the prosecutor has argued that in these types of acts “people who commit crimes are not always detained”, that “it depends on the circumstances” and that it is normal that they choose to later summon him to testify.
APPEAL BEFORE THE ECHR
In his turn to last word, Rodríguez has assured that he is willing to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if he is not acquitted by the Supreme Court. “If there is an eventual conviction, it is almost an ethical and moral obligation that the process does not end here,” he said.
In this sense, he has specified that he will not skimp on going to the Constitutional Court and later to Strasbourg if necessary to defend himself. “It is clear to me that I am innocent,” he said and later added that “there is no objective evidence beyond the mere statement of a policeman.”
Rodríguez has stressed that due to the delays, his right to effective judicial protection has been “curtailed” and that for him it has been “an ordeal” that has “worsened” since he has been in public office.
The leader has assured that with this procedure the right to assembly and demonstration is being questioned and has insisted that it is the responsibility of the institutions to prevent the protest from being criminalized.
