The businessman Álvaro de Marichalar, brother of Jaime de Marichalar and former brother-in-law of the Infanta Elena, will sit next Monday in the dock of the accused of the Court of Barcelona accused of a crime of resisting authority. The Prosecutor’s Office requests a nine-month prison sentence for the defendant for allegedly disobeying the order of Mossos d’Esquadra agents who intended to protect him from a pro-sovereignty protest the day before the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Barcelona.
Specifically, on October 26, 2017, Álvaro de Marichalar went to Plaza Sant Jaume with a banner against the Government of former president Carles Puigdemont and the possible secession. However, in the same place there was a group of pro-independence students, who were demonstrating precisely to demand the opposite and to make the Catalan republic effective now.
The prosecutor points out that the businessman showed them a Spanish flag in a defiant attitude, which caused the independentistas to confront him and take it by force. Given the tension and to avoid a possible fight, the Mossos agents who were at the scene urged Marichalar to enter the Palau de la Generalitat to protect him from insults, but the defendant refused.
It was then that the policemen, to prevent the incident from becoming more violent, dragged Marichalar, holding his arm, into the Generalitat building. The Public Ministry indicates that the defendant was “very upset” and wanted to return to the plaza, but the agents held him down until he could let go and went outside.
Faced with this situation, the mossos “had to reduce him, leaving him face down, and put the handcuffs on him to calm him down.” The agents charged him with a crime of resisting authority since they consider that Álvaro de Marichalar ignored his orders and for this reason the prosecutor is asking for nine months in jail. Shortly after the arrest, the businessman assured through social networks that the Catalan police had “kidnapped” him before the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The trial is held next week.
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