Death of 15 migrants in Ceuta: Case closed for lack of evidence
As of Thursday, the Spanish justice has dismissed the investigation of the deaths in 2014 of migrants trying to reach Sebta, in which 16 civil guards were put in question.
The investigating judge has ordered “a non-place provisional” in the case of the 14 members of the civil guard, accused of crimes of homicide and injury by carelessness, on lack of evidence in the use “inappropriate” material to combat riot, it was said Thursday by judicial sources.
The members of the civil guard were accused of using rubber bullets and sending the smoke into the water in the direction of the migrants. Among the indicted were a captain of the civil guard, a sergeant, a lieutenant, and 13 other agents of this security body.
The investigating judge, Maria del Carmen Servan of the tribunal of the chaired occupied Sebta, considers that the agents of the civil guard” are not responsible” for the drowning deaths of these migrants.
“There is no indication which affirms that the officers charged had improperly used riot equipment, especially when there is not a protocol governing the use of this equipment in the aquatic sector. The use of such equipment can only be described as reckless,” said the judge in her judgment, noting that immigrants “assume the risk” to carry out the crossing by swimming.
The Spanish minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, has in a statement reported by the news agency EFE, expressed his satisfaction in the classification of this case.
For its part, the civil guard has described as “good news”, the classification of this trial.
In response to this tragedy and the report, various NGOs including the European Association for the defence of the human rights (AEDH), have demanded the opening of an inquiry by the European Parliament, to determine responsibility in the death of these sub-Saharan immigrants.
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