Internal affairs of the Catalan police has arrested a mosso d’esquadra toaccused of extorting a man, who had been involved in a sexual assault accusation. The police officer, arrested on Monday at the L’Hospitalet de Llobregat police station where he works, allegedly asked the man for 50,000 euros, with the promise that the complaint against him would be withdrawn. The suspect was placed at the disposal of the L’Hospitalet investigating court 2 this Tuesday, and has been released with the order to appear periodically at judicial facilities.
The case started a few weeks ago, when lawyer Jorge Palomino filed a complaint with the internal affairs of the Catalan police. He explained to them that one of his clients was being extorted, and everything led them to think that it was one of the police officers who participated in the investigation against him for sexual assault. “It has been terrible,” says the lawyer, who maintains the complaint on behalf of his client, and who is now studying whether to appear in the case as a private accusation.
The complainant locates the alleged extortion on the day the police officer showed up at his home, alleging that the court required his telephone number due to the pending case. Already then, the man, who found the movement suspicious, gave him a mobile number that he had not used before. Soon, with a distorted voice, the calls began demanding 50,000 euros, and a period of haggling and negotiation began.
The Catalan police monitored the entire process, and finally, on Tuesday, they decided to arrest the mosso d’esquadra. In the searches, among other things, agents found the phone from which the calls were made, although the payment never materialized. Another police officer who allegedly knew about the extortion, and who did not want to participate in it, has also been charged for omission of the duty to prosecute crimes.
The detained agent is assigned to the L’Hospitalet citizen security unit. Now the director of the Catalan police, Josep Lluís Trapero, to whom the general police station of Internal Affairs reports directly, must decide whether to keep the police officer active or if he is provisionally suspended.
