CATALONIA
'Fairy Trial' by John Carlin
'But meanwhile, today, this week, Spain is world champion [on being
ridiculous]. The ridicule becomes more ridiculous, more laughter
provokes the greater the distance between the seriousness on the surface
and the stupidity in the background. As with the character of Inspector
Clouseau, so pompous and at the same time so foolish, in the films of
The Pink Panther.'
'Without the invaluable contribution of Mr. Millo the trial was already an epic clowning.
The prosecutors of the Spanish State argue that there was violence when
there was no violence during a referendum that was not a referendum on
October 1, 2017 in Catalonia. But there they continue, a month later,
and with each day that passes the ridicule is bigger. They touched
bottom, or I want to think, with Mr. Millo. Find his intervention on
YouTube. Mr. Millo is the former delegate of the Spanish Government in
Catalonia. In the most dramatic part of his testimony he tells that he
spoke with some policemen who had suffered the terrible consequences of
having confronted parents, grandparents, grandmothers and young people
who left their homes on October 1 and went to a polling place in certain
schools imagining that they were going to vote for the independence of
Catalonia.'
'"An agent
explained to me," he said, trembling, "that he had fallen into the trap
of the Fairy." The Fairy's trap? What could he refer to?, I asked
myself.'
'"The Fairy trap," explained Mr. Millo, consisted in
"pouring detergent into the entrance of certain schools so that when the
police entered they would skid and fall to the ground."
Here you
have it, ladies and gentlemen, the overwhelming evidence - based on the
testimony of an anonymous police officer - that there was violence on
the part of the twelve Catalan defendants, that there was rebellion,
that they must serve up to 20 years in prison for their crimes... What a
fool! I have covered many trials as a journalist in many countries, but
I have never seen anything more absurd. But the best, or rather the
worst, thing that takes the gold medal to ridicule, is that apparently
in Spain many people take the fairy tale of Mr. Millo seriously. How to
watch a movie by Inspector Clouseau believing that it is a real police
(and shocking) thriller. The judges did not laugh. The Madrid press
talked about it not only with all solemnity but also interpreted Mr.
Millo's testimony as a serious blow to the accused. "The defenses start
to get nervous," said one headline.'
