Irídia has brought before the Comité contra la Tortura de las Naciones Unidas a case of alleged ill-treatment in the CIE de la Zona Franca de Barcelona which places the events on September 21, 2017, after a protest in the center's courtyard.
The entity maintains that, after that protest, several inmates would have been detained and transferred to a corridor and a restroom, where they allegedly suffered ill-treatment by the agents. The organization assumed the representation of three affected individuals and assures that the complaints were supported by the complaints of the inmates themselves and by medical reports of injuries.
Complaint for events that occurred after a protest in the yard
Irídia states that the compiled documentation points to the existence of security cameras in the corridor that would have captured how the inmates were dragged and how afterwards they left with evident signs of injuries. The entity considers that material was relevant to clarify what happened inside the internment center of the Zona Franca.
"On September 21, 2017 several inmates would have been detained and transferred" - Irídia
The organization points out that the three cases were reported. However, it maintains that all the complainants were deported before they could give testimony as witnesses and undergo forensic examinations.
The judicial investigation was archived
Always according to Irídia, a court in Barcelona opened an investigation for these facts, although the case ended up archived due to the lack of declaration of the victims. The entity adds that the subsequent contact could only be resumed with one of the three affected, but that procedure also could not advance due to his situation of vulnerability and due to the impossibility of traveling to España to testify.
In the other two cases, the organization exhausted the internal channels with an appeal before the Constitutional Court, which was not admitted for processing due to lack of constitutional significance.
What it requests from the Committee against Torture
Given this scenario, Irídia demands that the State be compelled to carry out an effective investigation, to bring those responsible to justice and to guarantee effective reparation to the victims. It also calls for measures to strengthen accountability and the protection of human rights in the CIEs.
Among the concrete measures, it requests that the security cameras of these centers be well maintained and that the recordings be kept for the necessary time. Furthermore, it demands that the investigating courts, especially those that have jurisdiction over the CIEs, carry out urgent proceedings when they receive complaints from detainees.
The case is now in the hands of the UN committee, to which the entity has asked to examine if the response given until now was sufficient in the face of facts that, eight years later, still have not been judicially clarified.