Violence erupts during Barcelona trial of criminal gang

“Order!” was the extent of what Barcelona provincial High Court Judge Elena Guindulain was able to say during the trial of several suspected members of a criminal gang accused of extortion, battery and drug trafficking on Monday.

The presence in the courtroom of 23 defendants belonging to the Casuals, an organization with links to the FC Barcelona hardcore fan group the Boixos Nois, led to the deployment of a large number of police officers. During previous sessions proceedings had been calm but the expulsion of one of the defendants, David Rodríguez, was the spark that lit the fuse. The rest of the suspects said they would leave if Rodríguez was removed and made for the door of the courtroom, where the Mossos d’Esquadra barred their way.

A fist-fight lasting five minutes ensued and left four Mossos and two defendants injured, one with a potentially broken arm. Family members of the defendants criticized the “brutality” of the police and claimed that batons had been used to beat a handcuffed suspect on the floor of the courtroom.

When the trial was renewed the prosecutor, Ana Gil, asked that the defendants be removed due to the “exceptional and violent fuss.” Defense lawyers opposed the request and one said that although the suspects’ behavior was unacceptable, it had been provoked by the “unprecedented” police presence. Another lawyer said the deployment was a “humiliation.”

“We have never seen anything like this in the court,” said a prosecution lawyer. “It was a rebellion.”

Proceedings were reinitiated at 3.30pm. The leader of the Casuals, Ricardo Mateo, faces 119 years in prison.

He and other members of the gang were tried five months ago for torturing and robbing a drug trafficker. Prosecutors had sought 53 years for Mateo and his co-conspirators but magistrates reduced this to three-and-a-half years as it was ruled the defendants did not belong to a criminal organization.