First trial for real estate harassment suffered by Barcelona residents occupying a property in the Poble-sec neighborhood. A worker from the Stop Okupas Low Cost company, who was also on the Ciudadanos lists in the 2023 municipal elections in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, sat in the dock, accused of minor injuries and threats.
The events date back to last April and are just one of the episodes of harassment that the neighbours of the property have been suffering for ten months, when the new owner of the property hired the eviction company. The neighbours who remained in the property tried to negotiate a social rent with the property, without success. The only tenant with a valid contract left when the Stop Okupas Low Cost actions began.
“The occupation of the house has nothing to do with this procedure,” recalled the magistrate of the 2nd Court of Instruction of Barcelona at the beginning of the hearing against Ajmal RB. The events were recorded in the video that directs this information and that was reproduced in. the seen in what is the main evidence of the accusation.
“If anything happens to my employee, I will blow you all up, burn you all and kill you all,” the accused can be heard saying in the video. “I gave you a ‘yuyu’ and you will die,” he adds before lunging at the complainant who was recording the scene.
The events occurred after several residents of the neighborhood helped the tenants of the property to put back a door on the street that had been forcibly removed by the employees of Stop Okupas Low Cost, who quickly returned to the property. After a moment of tension with the neighbors, the accused rushed towards the victim to, according to his version, prevent him from continuing to record him with his mobile phone.
The episode judged this Thursday is just one in the long list of actions carried out by Stop Squatters Low Cost against the residents of Magalhaes Street in Barcelona to force them to leave their homes. Among them, water and electricity cuts and the sabotage of the house’s downspouts, reported by the neighbors.
The prosecution has requested that the accused be sentenced to a fine of 180 euros and compensation of 340 euros for a minor offence of injuries, a request that the private prosecution of the neighbour, Silvio C., led by lawyer Simón Cava, amounts to a fine of 2,160 euros and compensation of 470 euros by adding the offence of threats. He also wants the caretaker to be sentenced to not being able to approach the property. The defence is demanding acquittal, considering that it was a “random fight” without criminal relevance.
In his statement, the accused admitted to having lost his temper because of an alleged attack by local residents against another Stop Okupas employee (which does not appear to have been reported). “But I couldn’t touch him,” he stressed. On the other hand, a resident of Poble-sec confirmed that the accused had hit the complainant in the face, while a police officer who saw the scene from a distance said he saw the Stop Okupas Low Cost employee “slap” the neighbor, without being able to specify whether it was to his face or on the mobile phone.
The defense attorney insisted that the accused was “simply taking care of the property so that it would not be occupied” and that he had no “intention” of attacking the neighbor. For the prosecution, it is quite the opposite, since it is one more episode of the Stop Squatters Low Cost strategy and the ownership of the property to “make life impossible” for the occupants, denounced the lawyer Simón Cava.
