Spanish Court Reopens Investigation into Moroccan Teen’s Death at Juvenile Center

For the Court, "the investigation cannot be considered exhausted in this case and it is therefore premature to close the case without further investigation." Thus, the manager of the center, Ginso, will be summoned again this Friday, to confirm to the Court that its agents had "scrupulously respected the protocol" in the application of the restraint measures, reports Eldiario.es. "We are at the disposal of the competent authorities to provide them with all the necessary information in a transparent and collaborative manner," said Ginso, who specifies that in 18 years of experience, the center has never been convicted of any crime or offense against the minors it houses.

In January 2020, the court had ruled that Iliass Tahiri’s death was "accidental" and that the center’s agents had "properly applied the protocol." However, in an authentic video published in November 2019, nothing in the victim’s behavior justified the option of applying "mechanical restraint" to him, i.e. immobilizing him on a bed, lying face down. It was during this brutal operation carried out by 6 agents of the center that the young man died.

The victim’s family and the public prosecutor’s office appealed the decision. One, on the basis of the video images, considering that it was a murder, and the other, considering that the protocol was "contrary to the law" and endangered "the life and physical integrity of minors" in the centers managed by Ginso.

According to the judges, "the debate that could have taken place in the investigation is not to know whether the protocol applied is regular, but whether it has been executed in a way that preserves the integrity of the victim." In principle, the judges point out, "it is advisable to practice mechanical restraint in the presence of a doctor who could order its immediate suspension in case of acute agitation, especially in psychiatric patients, or cardiorespiratory arrest." However, they note, no doctor appears in the published video. This leads them to conclude that it could be "a priori, a crime of negligence, of reckless conduct."

To recall, this practice of mechanical restraint had already caused two deaths in Spain: in Madrid in 2011 and in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in 2018. In 2016, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), after a visit to the Tierras de Oria center, already considered it a "disproportionate use of force" and had requested its abolition, without success.