Spain: five women from Catalan anarchist movements file a complaint against an undercover police officer

Members of the Catalan regional police Mossos d'Esquadra near Barcelona, ​​October 6, 2020. AFP - JOSEP LAGO

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

In Barcelona, ​​five women from Catalan anarchist movements filed a complaint against a police officer who infiltrated their groups.

Advertisement

Read more

With our correspondent in Barcelona

,

​​Elise Gazengel

In particular, they file a complaint for “sexual assault” because these young women have all had sexual and emotional relations with a certain Daniel Hernandez Pons between 2020 and last fall.

A period of three years during which this young policeman, fresh out of school and from the neighboring island of Mallorca, posed as a young precarious worker on the far left and succeeded, thanks to these sentimental relationships , to integrate sometimes at the highest level several anarchist and libertarian groups of Barcelona.

"

Vice of consent 

"

Once her real identity was discovered by a Catalan newspaper, the activists decided to file a complaint, ensuring that they would never have consented to a relationship with a police officer.

Their lawyer evokes an offense against moral integrity and an offense of sexual assault, arguing a “vice of consent”.

And this accusation has raised a vast debate in the country, legal first.

Because can we really consent to a sexual act with a person whose real identity is hidden?

Spanish justice will have to decide.

But the victims are hopeful since in 2021, British justice ordered the police to compensate and apologize to an environmental activist for a similar case.

Political debate

In addition, this case also raises a political debate since in

Spain

, this type of infiltration must be authorized by the courts and only in cases of terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking.

These organizations therefore see it as political persecution.

Asked about the subject in the Congress of Deputies, the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, assured that the police respect the constitutional order and legality, before adding that the agents do not only prosecute crimes but let them know too.

An insufficient response for activists, especially since in the summer of 2022, another agent infiltrated into the independence movements had been discovered.

At the time, the minister had already assured that these infiltrations had stopped.

►Also read

: Spain: soon the abolition of the offense of secession?

(

November 11, 2022

)

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

  • Spain

  • Justice

  • Company