Outrageous bias in the Catalan referendum court case

Vicenç Villatoro
1 min

In a trial where scant physical evidence has been produced (and what little there is —video footage— won’t be allowed in court till the end), every account of what went down rests on the testimony of the witnesses. That is why there are so many of them and they are so important. Given that witnesses have provided diverging, contradictory testimonies, we can conclude that not all of them can be true, hence the need to establish how reliable every witness is and to ascertain their individual credibility. As a result, the prosecution seeks to discredit the witnesses called by the defence and vice versa.

It is here where we find the most outrageous bias in this court case. The prosecution openly announces its aim to discredit the defence witnesses —for instance, the international observers of the referendum— even though they are a third party to the events, and it can resort to whatever it feels like to achieve its aim. In contrast, the defence is not allowed to question the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses —mainly Guardia Civil officers— nor contrast their testimony against footage that might contradict them. Likewise, no attempt is made to find out if they have posted sectarian messages on social networks by means of anonymous accounts, as has been alleged of Lt. Col. Daniel Baena. Perhaps Spain’s Guardia Civil, like the Catholic Pope, are supposed to have been endowed with the gift of infallibility.

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