Breaking News - Catalan officials demand all Spanish police are removed

• Report rights infringement
• published: 03 Oct 2017
• views: 46

AutoNews- Catalonia's leader is demanding that all Spanish police forces leave the region, after nearly 900 people were injured as police tried to forcibly disrupt a referendum on independence.Catalan president Charles Puigdemont called an emergency meeting of the Catalan regional government, and said Catalonia would create a commission to investigate claims of abuse by Spanish police.The Catalan leader also called for international mediation to solve the political deadlock over the Catalan independence referendum, which according to local officials saw 90 per cent of 2.2million vote yes.Sunday's events in the autonomous region dramatically raised the temperature in a festering split between Madrid and Barcelona and made it harder for the two sides to sit down to try to find a political compromise.Puigdemont said the vote, which attracted millions of defiant voters despite being ruled illegal by the constitutional court, was valid and binding, and that 'we have to apply it'.He did, however, tell a news conference: 'We don't want a traumatic break ... We want a new understanding with the Spanish state.'Puigdemont's comments threw down a new challenge to Rajoy, who has the constitutional power to sack the regional government and put Catalonia under central control pending fresh elections.Spain's Justice Minister Rafael Catala warned this morning that the government would do 'everything within the law' to prevent Catalonia breaking away.'If anyone plans to declare the independence of part of the territory of Spain, as it can't since it does not have the power to do so, we would have to do everything within the law to impede this,' he said as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy prepared to hold high-level talks over the humiliating vote.It comes amid worldwide condemnation of brutality by Spanish police who were under orders to seal off polling stations and seize ballot boxes. Catalonia's government claims 893 were injured during clashes yesterday.The autonomous region in northeastern Spain has it's own police force, known as Mossos d'Esquadra, but national reinforcements had been drafted in ahead of the referendum.One woman, Marta Torrecillas claimed police had broken her fingers 'one by one' and sexually assaulted her while they laughed.Marta Torrecillas was filmed being violently removed from a school in the city's upmarket Eixample area as Catalonia voted for independence yesterday.The clip, captured at Paul Claris School, showed her being manhandled as she tried to walk past officers in full body armour on a day when footage of police brutality sparked outrage around the world.Her dress was forced up around her thighs - leaving her exposed and humiliated - as she was dragged down towards the exit. She later claimed officers had touched her breasts and broken her fingers 'deliberately, one by one'.Miss Torrecillas described her alleged ordeal in a WhatsApp recording addressed to a friend called Laura and released to the Spanish press after the incident, insisting: 'I was defending elderly people with open arms.'That's all I was doing, defending elderly people because they hit children and the elderly. They got hold of me and threw me down the stairs and threw things at me. They broke my fingers deliberately, one by one.'Halfway down the stairs, with my clothes up, they touched my breasts while they laughed and hit me. Tell them Laura, tell them what they're doing. I want everyone to know.'They have broken the fingers on my hand one by one deliberately. That is real evil, real evil.' Local reports said she received medical attention from emergency services at the scene but refused to go to hospital so she could vote.She was later pictured with her arm in a sling and one of her hands heavily bandaged, explaining exactly what had happened to her.Officials revealed that hundreds of protesters were injured in a day of violence. Officers were seen kicking and stamping on protesters as they stormed buildings and seized ballot boxes.Footage captured in the village of Sarria de Ter in the province of Girona showed authorities using an axe to smash down the doors of a polling station where Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was due to cast his vote.In Barcelona, the region's capital, officers fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters demonstrating against their votes being denied.Boris Johnson condemned the violent clashes but said that the UK saw the vote as unconstitutional.The Foreign Secretary said: 'We are obvious