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The first month of the obligation for a lawyer to assist the victim while filing the complaint at the police station is completed
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The phone rang at four in the afternoon on Sunday, July 25. Montserrat Couple it had not been long since he had finished eating. She is one of the lawyers who were on duty that day on the duty shift of sexist violence of the Barcelona Bar Association. His interlocutor was a police officers from Sant Boi police station. The agent informed him that a woman of foreign origin had come to the police station with the intention of denouncing her husband for having threatened her with a knife. Since last July 1, in Catalonia it is mandatory for victims of this type of crime to be assisted by a lawyer at the police station to file a complaint. Before it was a recommendation. “Let them know that they are not alone,” says the lawyer.
Montserrat asked the agent to give him the woman’s information, but he could not communicate with the victim because he did not speak any Spanish. Faced with this situation, the police station began to look for an interpreter. Until one was found (it was Sunday) some time passed. The statement was made at six in the afternoon. The lawyer arrived earlier to speak with the woman and explain. The mosso was concerned that the victim was at the police station waiting too long. The protocol of the Councils of the Bar Association of Catalonia He states that attendance must be immediate and should not exceed one hour, a period that is sometimes difficult to meet. The person in charge of the duty shift of the Col.legi de l’Advocacía de Barcelona, Carmen Valenzuela, advocates that when it is impossible to get to the police station in an hour (“it is a short time”), videoconferencing can be used.
In December 2020, a modification was made to the Catalan law on women’s rights to eradicate sexist violence. Its article 31.6 read as follows: “When a woman goes to a police station to file a complaint as a consequence of having experienced any of the manifestations of sexist violence,” the Mossos must request the presence of a lawyer from the bar association to guarantee the assistance to the victim from the initial moment.
Free assistance
This assistance is provided by the State and is free for women, as established by the law on comprehensive protection measures against gender violence. Hence, the importance of the sexist violence ex officio shift, a service that the Barcelona Bar Association has 1,272 lawyers who not only cover the Catalan capital but also other towns. During the first semester of this year, 2,098 legal aid assignments were made for victims of gender violence, when the previous year in the same period they were 1,809 and in 2019, 1,997. And from July 1 to 26 of this year, another 385 appointments were processed.
Montserrat was on duty that Sunday, July 25, for the Baix Llobregat police stations. When he arrived at Sant Boi, he found a stressed and anxious woman in the waiting room. She was accompanied by two family members, one of them a direct witness to the alleged threat with a knife by her husband. As the interpreter had not yet arrived, it was one of these relatives who translated the victim’s words. “He told me what happened,” says the lawyer, without going into details due to her professional secrecy. Little by little he was removing details from the woman of an abuse that, apparently, was not occasional, but habitual. “He would not let her work, or interrelate. One example of this is that he did not speak Spanish. His mission was to clean and cook, ”he says. He had her, in short, as a slave, according to witnesses.
Given the story that the victim communicated and after explaining how the procedure would work, the lawyer recommended that she needed a protection order to get away from the abuser. It was clear that there was an objective risk situation. The direct witness to the threat confirmed each of the woman’s words. After receiving the advice of the lawyer and when the interpreter arrived, the agent proceeded to take a statement from him. “A badly formulated complaint may mean that the case is closed or that an acquittal is issued,” insists Montserrat. “A good complaint is essential, from the chronology of the events to the smallest details. It must be as precise as possible ”, he stresses. He acknowledges that the situation he encountered was “very complex”, not only because of the victim’s language, but also because of his profile. “The mosso was very professional,” he says. The statement lasted three hours.
A complete statement
The presence of the lawyer allowed, with her questions, that the victim did not leave anything in the pipeline. “The main objective is for the declaration to be as complete as possible,” says Montserrat. The alleged aggressor was arrested and slept at the police station. The next day, already Monday, it was brought to justice. The woman had requested in the Mossos an order of protection with criminal measures (removal) and civilians (there is a minor and the woman does not work) and it was the judge who had to agree on it, as it happened.
The magistrate took statements from the victim, the witness and the detainee, who denied the accusations. As there was no compliance, the trial was scheduled for May 2022. The arrested alleged that he had no problem leaving the marital home and was accompanied by the mossos to collect his belongings. The divorce proceedings lie ahead. “It is essential that victims of sexist violence have information about what is going to happen from the moment they file the complaint and from minute one. And let them perceive that you are going to accompany them until the process is over ”, insists Montserrat. For the 24-hour guard, this lawyer will receive 170 euros.
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“Many women are afraid that they will not be believed and that they will not agree to the protection order. Lawyers are there to advise you and, in addition, to guarantee the proper functioning of the procedure. That is, that the complaint is well formulated. They are at a crucial moment in their life and they must be given strength, empowerment, security. That he notices that you support him, that he does not feel questioned, or alone, ”says the lawyer. Since that Sunday, July 25, the victim calls her lawyer every day. Mission accomplished.
Decrease in complaints due to the pandemic
Official data reflects a “noticeable” decline in 2020 of the number of complaints filed for sexist violence, according to the memory of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia. In Catalonia, in 2019 there were 22,394 and last year 19,927 (11.02% less) In the whole of Spain, the decrease is very similar, from 10.28% (from 168,057, in 2019, to 150,785 in 2020. Behind this decline is the covid pandemic and the confinement that was lived for a few months. Locked up at home, the victims had more difficulty getting away from the abuser and reporting to the police,
The crimes that accumulate the most complaints, despite the general decrease, is that of injuries or mistreatment of article 153 of the Penal Code, which punishes the person who “by any means or procedure causes another mental impairment or a less serious injury”, hit or mistreated work when the offended was a wife or partner (in 2020, in Spain 84,682 complaints and in Catalonia 12,214). A significant fact is that while the majority of criminal offenses have decreased, homicides in the Catalan community increased by 30% from one year to another, crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity increased by 3.26% and violations 15.4% of measures (distance, among others).
Protection orders filed also fell. In Spain they went from 40,720 in 2019 to 35,861 in 2020 (11.93% less) and in Catalonia, from 5,550 to 4,711 (15.12% less). Regarding the direction of the decisions issued, in the Catalan community there is a greater drop in the number of protection orders adopted compared to those denied, which in percentage terms represent 59.44%, when the state average of rejected petitions is 28 , 80%. Above all, distance and communication measures are agreed.
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