Spain: Police officers guilty of rape
01 January 1991
Spain: Police officers guilty of rape
artdoc June=1993
Two Spanish police officers have been sentenced to 15 years
imprisonment for raping a Moroccan woman in August 1991, after
having threatened to plant hashish in her handbag and have her
expelled from Spain. The court condemned `the abuse of authority
against a hard-working foreign immigrant in a vulnerable
situation', and ordered them to pay all legal costs and
compensation to the victim (El Pais 15.3.93).
Moroccan loses testicle in police beating
SOS Racism in Valencia say that a police attack on 25-year-old
Hamid Raaji, which resulted in the Moroccan having to have
surgery to remove one of his testicles, was the worst racist
attack ever to have occurred in the province. On March 1 1992,
Mr. Raaji was stopped by an officer and asked to show his papers.
When Mr. Raaji protested, saying `I'm not in the Third World, I'm
in Spain' he was beaten by the policeman and kneed in the groin,
while three other police officers stood by and watched (El Pais
16.3.93).
Police guilty of assault
Four members of the Catalan police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra,
who beat up a Nigerian immigrant have been sentenced by a
Barcelona High Court to ten days imprisonment and fined 500. The
police officers were found guilty of attacking the Nigerian, who
was dragged from a phone booth and then beaten and arrested on
6 April 1992. In spite of the officers claim that they were
searching the victim for drugs, the court declared the policemen
to have been wholly responsible for the violence. SOS Racism
called for the officers to be expelled from the force, and for
the cancellation of the police file on the victim (El Pais
3.3.93).
Amnesty International take up cases of police torture
As part of the United Nations Committee Against Torture,
representatives of Amnesty International will question Spanish
officials in Geneva on cases of torture and aggression carried
out by the Spanish police and the Civil Guard. Since November
1990, according to Amnesty, the number of members of the police
and Civil Guard accused of ill-treatment of detainees has
continued to rise sharply, and both organisations have employed
methods of torture including `kicks, punches and blows with
truncheons or other instruments such as telephone books.
Detainees are frequently kept hooded for long periods. There are
also reports of simulated executions, the use of electric shocks,
sexual abuse, and the use of plastic bags to the point where they
almost cause asphyxiation'.
Although the majority of the 50 cases cited, carried out
between January and May 1992, were against Basques suspected of
collaboration with ETA, it also includes the cases of Mohamed
Mahmoud and Emad Raed, two Moroccans who were tortured by the
Civil Guard in Ibiza last year (El Periodico 21.4.93).
IRR European Race Audit no 4 1993. Contact: Liz Fekete, Institute
of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS. Tel: ++ 071
837 0041