Following the first two days of the trial at the Barcelona Provincial Court against the four police officers who mutilated Roger Español during the 1 October 2017 referendum, the Catalan National Assembly, Òmnium Cultural and Irídia—the organisations acting as private prosecutors in this case, as well as prompting the #JustíciaPerRoger campaign—state that:
- The violation of linguistic rights arising is unacceptable. During the second hearing of the trial, lawyers were unable to question some witnesses in Catalan because the person responsible for interpreting was unable to perform the task adequately, to the point that they had to do the interpreting themselves. This violates the Catalan Charter of linguistic rights of citizens before the courts, as well as the Spanish Organic Law on the Judiciary.
- The lack of public transparency surrounding a trial of such significance is deeply concerning. Given its implications for fundamental rights, the case concerns not only Roger Español, but also thousands of citizens who were injured by police on 1 October 2017 while exercising their right to protest and their right to exercise self-determination. In this regard, the organisations denounce the obstacles faced by supporters and members of the public wishing to attend the trial in person, the capacity restrictions imposed, and the impossibility for members of the public and media professionals to follow the proceedings remotely in an open and transparent manner, as has been allowed in other cases and at other judicial instances. This lack of transparency also significantly affects the work being carried out by several international human rights observers.
For all these reasons, the organisations call for the trial concerning the police violence of 1 October to be conducted with the highest possible degree of transparency, and for the lack of transparency and violations of linguistic rights to be addressed urgently.