The High Court considers the case to be of “special constitutional significance”.
The organisations Stop Represión and the Granada Delegation of the Andalusian Association for Human Rights (APDHA) have announced in a press release that “the Constitutional Court has admitted the appeal for amparo that they filed against the dismissal of a complaint against agents of the National Police, for a case of illegal detention and torture” during the celebration of the demonstration encouraged by the extreme right-wing party Vox on 23 May 2020, in which several agents allegedly retained, strongly grabbed, shook and beat a woman who was walking her dog near the route of the demonstration, causing her several bruises”.
In fact, as the expert report points out, during the arrest, a nurse recognised the detainee at the police station and “recommended her transfer to hospital for a radiological examination, due to a serious swelling on her arm”, an injury that was confirmed at the hospital, which detected erythema -inflammation-, an erosion on the right shoulder and inflammation on the right wrist, as well as “injuries and contusions on the thigh, wrist and wounds”, according to the medical report.
The complainant lodged an appeal for amparo with the Constitutional Court, alleging that her fundamental rights “to physical and moral integrity in relation to effective judicial protection and to a trial with all the guarantees and use of the relevant means of evidence” had been violated. In its writ of amparo, it was argued that “the case is of special constitutional significance”, as it shows that “the doctrine of the Constitutional Court on the investigation of ill-treatment prohibited by article 15 of the Spanish Constitution is being generally and repeatedly disregarded by the ordinary courts”.
Now, the Third Section of the Second Chamber of the Constitutional Court has agreed to admit the appeal for processing, appreciating “a special constitutional transcendence because the appeal may give the court the opportunity to clarify or change its doctrine”, with regard to the investigation of torture or inhuman treatment.
In this sense, the social organisations that are accompanying the complainant in the proceedings recall that “this year the European Court of Human Rights once again condemned the Spanish State when it found that there was a lack of a thorough and effective investigation into the complaints of a complainant from Pamplona who alleged that he had been mistreated during his incommunicado detention by the State Security Forces and Corps”. According to the latest data provided by the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, 102 officers of the State Security Forces were serving sentences in prisons in 2020. Although most of them (41) were deprived of their liberty for actions against sexual freedom and indemnity, nine were sentenced for illegal detention, seven for assault and battery, six for homicide and one for torture or inhuman treatment.
The social organisations welcome the admission of the appeal for amparo and hope that the High Court “recognises the right to effective judicial protection and declares that the fundamental rights of the complainant have been violated”, that therefore, “each and every one of the contested judicial resolutions is revoked” and that with its resolution, it promotes compliance with the investigation of the crimes of torture or inhumane treatment.
