Witnesses to file complaint over death of man in custody of Mossos
"We cannot tolerate police brutality in the Raval neighborhood any longer," says a spokesman
Friends of Juan Andrés Benítez - who died last week after being arrested after a street altercation - and gay rights and neighborhood associations will file a police complaint against five Mossos d'Esquadra officers after several witnesses described the "serious beating" Benítez sustained.
"We cannot tolerate police brutality in the Raval neighborhood any longer," said a spokesman for the associations. "This is not an isolated incident."
Residents who saw what happened said the Catalan police officers meted out a 10-minute beating after being called to the area when Benítez and a neighbor, who has been named as a suspect, came to blows. The subsequent autopsy showed that Benítez died of a heart attack after sustaining "multiple traumas" to the face and head.
The witness accounts contradict the version of events that has been given by the Mossos.
