Observers of the 1-O trial warn that the prosecutor is blaming the defendants for "the violence perpetrated by the Spanish police"

BarcelonaThe International Trial Watch (ITW) platform issued a report this Monday giving an overview of the first week of the trial against the 1-O, which was attended by six of the organization’s observers. ITW warns that "the charges fail to take into account the fact that the defendants’ actions are protected by fundamental rights", and goes on to say that the fact that they consider that they have committed a crime implies that they are "reversing the constitutionally enforceable order when there are fundamental rights at stake". In the same vein, it accuses the prosecutor of blaming the defendants for "violence perpetrated on 1-O by [Spain’s] National Police and Civil Guard, thus minimizing the severe nature of injuries suffered by citizens".

Meanwhile, the ITW points out that "the Chief Prosecutor’s Office and the Solicitor General introduced new facts" during the cross-examinations, while criticizing the procedural irregularity of starting a trial with documentation which the prosecution has access to, but which the defence does not. According to the ITW "this procedural anomaly should be monitored throughout the trial in order to determine if it [constitutes a] lack of proper material defence".

The statement also warns that if, as some of the defence teams have alleged, “if a breach to the right of a judge predetermined by law has occurred", it will also mean "the defendants with no political immunity will also see their right to a second level of jurisdiction breached". The report also warns that the court "has refused to accept key evidence from the defence". "It remains to be seen throughout the trial if the refusal to include this evidence ends up affecting the defendants’ right to defend themselves" and, therefore, "violates their right to use the relevant means of proof". The ITW also criticized the fact that the Supreme did not reserve space in the courtroom for international observers, meaning they had to queue up for hours.

In the first week of the trial, the observers who were in court were William Mozdzierz, a member of the American Bar Association; Dominique Nogueres, the lawyer and president of the French League for Human Rights and a member of Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights (based in Copenhagen); the lawyer and member of the International Federation of Human Rights (Paris) Alexandre Faro; the associate lawyer at Charleroi Bar Association and member of Democratic European Lawyers Frédéric Ureel; the international jurist of the European Association Lawyers for Democracy Fabio Marcelli; and Javier Pérez Royo, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Seville.