Spanish Journalist 'Boro' Cleared of Attack on Police Charges

The Spanish journalist known as Boro has been cleared of charges Wednesday for attacking a police officer during an anti-monarchy protest in 2014, with the court ruling that there was not enough evidence to support the police’s version.

RELATED:

Spain: Media Defends Freedom of Speech Ahead of World Press Day

Police officers accused Jorge Correa “Boro” of beating one of them during the Checkmate on Monarchy protest on Mar. 29, 2014. Prosecutors were initially demanding a six year sentence and a 6,200 euro fine, which was reduced to two years and the same amount of money after the case started crumbling in October.

The only evidence against him were the testimonies of the same police officers accusing him, but video recordings of the protest favored Boro.

The photojournalists Juan Ramon Robles, Jaime Alekos and Luis Alvarez declared that security forces attacked members of the press during the 2014 protest and that Boro was another victim of the aggression.

According to the journalist himself, who works for publications such as La Haine and Kaos en la Red, he saw an officer attacking a friend of his when another agent pushed him. He then tried to run away but got arrested.

“There are inaccurate declarations, not uniform between them, of the agents regarding the order and reach of the events, not really confirmed by their partners, presenting injuries produced in different ways,” said the sentences ruled by the Madrid tribunal. “What has been presented raises doubts … and the doubts are even more after screening the video.”

The ruling is still not definite, as prosecutors still have ten days to appeal it.

According to Boro, what happened at the end of the 2014 protest was an attack on the press and freedom of speech by the police, not an attack on authorities as prosecutors claimed.

Boro is also facing 18 months in prison for "praising terrorism" and "disrupting social peace" through social media posts and his reporting.

According to the 2015-2017 global report by Amnesty International, 69 people were arrested between April 2014 and April 2016 as a result of the Spider Operations carried out by the Spanish Civil Guard against social media users who had been deemed to "praise terrorism."