A policeman who is under investigation for alleged brutality has claimed that he is the victim of sexual abuse because a female demonstrator kissed him during a protest.
The officer was one of many riot police deployed in Catalonia on October 1st, 2017, the day that nationalists staged a referendum across the region on independence, defying court orders declaring the vote unlawful. Police used force against participants in many voting stations and 45 officers who were in Barcelona are still being investigated for possible assault.
However, one of them has filed a complaint against a woman who was demonstrating in favour of the referendum that day, claiming that she kissed him on the mouth in a “surprising, unexpected, sudden and non-consensual” way.
The policeman has provided a clip of a news report on the 2017 referendum by the TV network Al Jazeera as part of his evidence.
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The clip in question shows a woman in her 60s reaching forward and briefly kissing on the mouth a policeman, who has the visor on his helmet raised.
In his complaint, the officer alleges that as well as having “the motive of libido”, the woman who kissed him sought to “trigger a situation of generalised violence”. She had previously been insulting him, he has claimed, but on seeing television cameras nearby sought to provoke a physical response from him.
“My reaction was one of disgust, of self-control because of the extreme violence,” he said.
Patrícia Plaja, spokeswoman for the pro-independence Catalan government, called for this issue not to be treated with “frivolity”.
“It is surprising that we should find out now about events which took place six years ago,” she said.
The complainant said that he had waited this long to file the case because he had not been able to find the Al Jazeera footage.
This comes just days after the resignation of Luis Rubiales, president of the national football federation, who faced a backlash after kissing the player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth following the Spanish team’s victory in the women’s World Cup final.
Mr Rubiales is due to appear in court on Friday as part of an investigation that could lead to him going on trial for sexual assault.
Meanwhile, the policeman is alleging sexual abuse against the demonstrator, rather than sexual assault, because of changes to the law since 2017.
Those legal changes are seen as the reason why a member of the so-called “Wolf Pack” – a group of five men who raped a young woman in Pamplona in 2016 – had his prison sentence reduced this week from 15 years to 14. The reduction has drawn outrage and the victim of the attack has said she will appeal against it.
