Jail for police officers who 'beat up and threatened' British tourists after pub-fight arrest
Jail for police officers who 'beat up and threatened' British tourists after pub-fight arrest
FOUR Guardia Civil officers have been sentenced to prison for reportedly beating up British tourists arrested in connection with a pub brawl in the Palmanova area of Calvià (Mallorca).
The Sergeant has been jailed for four years and struck off for 16, as well as being ordered to pay a fine of 360 euros, whilst three of his subordinates face two years behind bars and fines of 180 euros each and been banned from practising their profession for a further eight years.
A court heard that in November 2009, a British man involved in a pub fight punched an off-duty Guardia Civil sergeant in the face, causing him to keel over unconscious.
The holidaymaker and another Brit were taken into police custody and, whilst handcuffed in cells, were allegedly kicked, punched, threatened and insulted.
Both female judges trying the case said that the 'violent and humiliating actions' qualified as 'serious offences of torture' since they were not spur-of-the-moment incidences, but continued not only on numerous occasions while they were in police cells but also after they had been released.
They and another man in a neighbouring cell arrested for an unrelated incident were threatened into remaining silent, according to the case notes.
A third judge dissented in passing the verdict, saying he did not consider there had been sufficient evidence that the Brits and their cell-mate had been 'threatened' into not reporting the matter.
