Court acquits four police officers of assaulting Moroccan minor in Madrid
Madrid's Provincial Court has ruled that officers did not deliberately beat the young man during his arrest in September 2023. The tribunal deemed evidence of assault based on low-quality recordings insufficient.
Acquittal of police officers in assault case involving minor
Madrid's Provincial Court has acquitted four National Police officers accused of assaulting a minor of Moroccan origin and falsifying the police report. According to El Confidencial, the court's Fifteenth Section concluded that there was insufficient evidence to establish abuse of authority and considered the force used to be justified by the young man's resistance.
The ruling, handed down on 30 October and formally notified on Wednesday, rejected the accusation of deliberate manipulation of the account of events, although it acknowledged that the police document contained errors and inaccuracies.
Context of the events
The events date back to the early hours of 8 September 2023 on Bravo Murillo street in Madrid. A couple had alerted emergency services on several occasions that a group of young people were attempting to rob them. When officers arrived, one of the suspects—a 17-year-old minor under the guardianship of the Madrid region—pushed a police officer and fled. Three officers pursued him to nearby Sófora street, where a struggle ensued that ended with the young man on the ground.
Prosecutor's accusation
The Public Prosecutor's Office sought a seven-year prison sentence. It maintained that, once subdued, the police officers had beaten the minor with punches and kicks whilst directing xenophobic insults at him. According to the accusation, one of the officers passively watched the assault whilst the other three subsequently left the young man lying on the roadway, despite protests from several neighbours who witnessed the events from their windows.
The Public Prosecutor also attributed to all four officers the preparation of a deliberately false account, with alterations to the times and circumstances of the intervention.
Court's evidential analysis
The tribunal presided over by Raquel Suárez Santos, with Josefina Molina Marín as rapporteur, considered that the accusation had failed to overturn the presumption of innocence of the officers. The ruling gave particular weight to the poor quality of the recordings made by the neighbours. Due to darkness, it was not possible to determine with certainty whether the police officers' movements corresponded to an assault or to manoeuvres necessary to restrain the minor.
In one of the videos lasting barely 20 seconds, it was also not possible to establish that an apparently kicked by one of the officers actually made contact with the young man. The medical report found no injuries consistent with the alleged kick. Although the minor presented a head wound requiring medical attention and taking eight days to heal, the judges considered it had not been sufficiently established that this was a consequence of police action.
Conduct of the minor
The tribunal noted that the young man himself was convicted by a final ruling of Madrid's Juvenile Court number 3 for crimes of assault on an officer, resistance and minor injuries, after acknowledging that he had pushed one of the police officers and struck another during the struggle.
Evaluation of testimony
The ruling questioned the reliability of some testimony. In particular, it disregarded the account of a witness who claimed to have witnessed blows with police batons and heard xenophobic insults. The judges highlighted contradictions in her statement and considered that she had even attributed to herself the recording of images she had not made. These inconsistencies prevented her testimony from being used as sufficient evidence to support a conviction.
Momentary abandonment of the minor
The ruling did reproach the officers for momentarily abandoning the minor in the middle of the street, conduct which it described as "ethically reprehensible" and which could even have disciplinary consequences. However, it concluded that this did not constitute a crime against moral integrity, as it had not been established that the officers intended to humiliate him or subject him to unnecessary suffering.
The judges considered that the police officers left in order to respond to a request for assistance from a colleague and another incident related to a possible sexual assault, before returning and proceeding to detain the young man.
Question of falsified report
Regarding the alleged falsification of the report, the Provincial Court acknowledged that the officers recorded an incorrect time and omitted certain details of the intervention, including that it was the neighbours who alerted emergency medical services. Nevertheless, it considered that these discrepancies did not substantially alter what occurred and that deliberate intent to falsify the facts had not been established.
The tribunal distinguished between an imperfect police account and a documentary falsity with penal relevance, ruling out that the officers—represented by the Frago y Suárez law firm—had incurred the latter.
Source: El Confidencial