The Provincial Court of Barcelona has sentenced two agents of the Guàrdia Urbana of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat to three years in prison for falsification of an official document following an action that occurred in January 2023 on Miraflores Avenue. A third agent tried for the same events has been acquitted.
The case revolves around a report that attributed to a witness a possible offense of resistance to authority, but several surveillance cameras dismantled that version and gave validity to the citizen's account. The ruling also adds a conviction for a minor offense of mistreatment against one of the police officers for the way he acted during the identification.
The cameras contradicted the report written by the officers
The events occurred when a bus and a pedestrian were involved in a traffic accident on Miraflores avenue in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. In that context, a witness refused to identify himself to the officers who arrived at the scene.
The Prosecutor's Office maintained during the trial that a corporal from the Centurió unit of the Local Police pushed the witness, grabbed him by the neck, and knocked him down. It also attributed to him the verbal threat that appears in the sentence.
"If you don't give it to me (the ID) the easy way, you'll give it to me the hard way" - corporal of the Centurió unit of the Local Police
Afterwards, the original report stated that the witness could have committed a crime of resisting authority. The judicial investigation concluded, however, that recordings from several cameras confirmed the complainant's version and proved the falsehood of the official report.
The sentence imposed prison, disqualification, and a fine on two police officers
In addition to the prison sentence for forgery of an official document, Court number one of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat issued a ruling that disqualifies the two convicted officers for two years from the exercise of their duties.
The resolution also imposes an economic fine on them for a minor offense of mistreatment. The third agent who sat on the bench for these same events was acquitted.
The episode judged occurred in January 2023 on Miraflores avenue, where surveillance cameras were decisive in dismantling the report that attributed to the witness a possible crime of resistance to authority.