This archive report was first published on 26 October 2019.
On October 26, 2019, thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Navarra court building in Pamplona, Spain, to protest the reduced sentences of eight defendants in a bar brawl trial.
The demonstration was called by Basque separatist groups and left-wing parties, despite a Supreme Court ruling earlier in the month reducing the defendants' sentences from between two and 13 years to 18 months and nine-and-a-half years.
The incident that led to the trial occurred in Alsasua, a town in the northern region of Navarra, where locals attacked two off-duty policemen who were with their girlfriends at a bar. One of the officers was hospitalized with a broken ankle.
The original trial had charged the defendants with 'inflicting injuries of a terrorist-nature' and issuing 'terrorist threats,' but the court threw out those charges and convicted them of 'attacking agents of authority,' causing injuries, and public disorder.
