The Valencia Court has imposed sentences of up to two years in prison on 27 accused of attacking and threatening protesters who participated in the march held on October 9, 2017. The sentence includes the agreement of conformity and recognition of the facts to which 25 of the accused arrived with the prosecution. In the case of the other two people who sat in the dock, the court has condemned one of them and has decided to acquit the other considering that it has not been possible to prove that he participated directly in the siege and the attacks but rather that he He remained as “a mere observer and narrator of the events, making comments on what was happening there, telling what he saw and responding to the comments that were made to him on the social network where he broadcast,” according to the ruling. The court rules out that his actions “in themselves had the capacity to prevent or disrupt the legitimate exercise of the freedoms of assembly or demonstration” and points out that there is no evidence that he verbally or physically attacked any protester or that he had any connection with the accused. They did carry out violent acts.
The ruling recognizes that the attacks were caused by ideological reasons and to try to prevent the protest march that is celebrated on Valencian Community Day. The majority of those accused belong to extreme right groups and, according to the resolution, a group of them already went to the center of the city on the morning of October 9, “with the purpose of preventing the development of the demonstration and with an ideological motivation.”
During the afternoon, those now condemned, “in apparent formation, with chants, shouts and, in some cases, arms raised” approached the march. “Its purpose was none other than to besiege and confront those who attended the demonstration called by the October 9 Commission and, in short, to hinder and prevent, even through the use of violence, the holding of the aforementioned demonstration as a consequence of their radical ideological discrepancy with the organizers of the demonstration and their hostility to everything they represent,” as the ruling indicates.
“The demonstration could not develop normally nor could it complete its planned route as a result of the concerted action of some of the accused,” the resolution concludes. The sentence handed down by the First Section of the Court of Valencia, which consists of 222 pages and has been notified this Friday to the parties, can be appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
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