On the morning of January 21, 2017, two rural agents of the Generalitat were shot dead by a hunter while they were carrying out a routine hunting inspection in Aspa (Lleida). Two years later, the Court of Lleida sentenced the murderer to 45 years in prison. Five years after the double crime, the families continue to battle with the Generalitat, which is reluctant to pay compensation for their deaths. At the moment there are two procedures open: a dispute in the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) and a claim for the Principle of Indemnity of Officials. The sentence set the compensation at 1,077,000 euros, but the convicted person declared himself insolvent and they only collected 300,000 euros from the hunting insurance.
The families claim the difference between what the Court ruled that they should be paid and what the insurer paid. Manel Vidal, who was coordinator of the Workers' Commissions of the Corps of Rural Agents at the time of the events, insists that the families, in addition to the compensation that corresponds to them by law, demand "that the Generalitat put in place the necessary measures so that something so it doesn't happen again and no one else has to suffer what they are suffering”.
Vidal recalls that "nobody has assumed responsibilities for the lack of preventive measures with which the Rural Agents worked in 2017." It is clear to him that "no responsibilities have been demanded because the one who had to claim them" was the Generalitat itself. "In a private company, the Labor Inspectorate would have opened a sanctioning file, but being judge and party, they have not believed themselves responsible," he laments. The trade unionist maintains that the technicians of the Agricultural Prevention Service - Department to which the rural agents belonged - detected in the 2014 risk assessment a risk of "threat, violence, physical aggression by a person armed with objects that could be considered dangerous for the physical integrity of the agents”. The evaluation was left in a drawer. Measures were only taken after the deaths,hunting controls became one more agent (three) and one with a long gun, and they were given bulletproof vests.
For the families of the victims, the deaths "were a consequence of the lack of security and protection measures provided by the department in the exercise of its functions," and they alleged an "omission in terms of occupational risks." After completing the criminal procedure, they presented a Patrimonial Claim to the Generalitat. The Legal Advisory Commission of the Generalitat issued a report concluding that "the Administration is only responsible when it can be proven, in a cause-effect relationship, that the damage can be attributed to an abnormal functioning of public services." He argued that the damage "was due to the determining intervention of a third party —the hunter—" outside the operation of the public service ", and stressed that this is "a harmful event that is very difficult to prevent." According to the Commission,the deceased —Xavier Ribes and David Iglesias— did not have time to notify their teams and “nor would they have been able to use their weapons.”
Given this report, Agriculture opposed the lawsuit and the families' lawyer, Pau Simarro, appealed to the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the TSJC. The Chamber has not resolved and the sentence issued may be appealed. At the same time, in December 2020, Simarro filed a second claim against the Generalitat for the Principle of Indemnity for Officials. The judgment of July 8, 2020 of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court established as a doctrine that: “Injuries and damages suffered by police officers as a result of illegal actions of the people over whom they exercise, without fault or negligence on their part the functions that are their responsibility, must be compensated by the Administration through the principle of compensation or indemnity,general principle governing public employees.
The lawyer for the victims maintains that five years after the crimes "justice has been done with the murderer", but regrets that the Generalitat continues to oppose "compensating the relatives of the two agents who died in cold blood in the exercise of its functions".