Following the Balearic High Court confirmation of sentences for four Palma police officers who were involved in an act of aggression towards a prisoner who had been taken into the cells at the Sant Ferran police station, the town hall has announced that it will dismiss them. Pollensa town hall has also announced that it will dismiss one of the four, who had been taken on pending appeal of the sentences.
The incident occurred in May 2011. A video (the whole thing had been filmed by a security camera) came into the public domain as evidence of what had occurred. In the video, one officer is seen kicking the prisoner who was defenceless and shackled to a chair.
In its judgement, the court said that the prisoner, who was drunk and tied up, had been the victim of "contemptuous and humiliating" degradation. The officer who did the kicking, identified as Antonio G.M., was originally given an eighteen months' sentence by the provincial court. The latest ruling - the sentences handed out to the four officers were being appealed - has reduced this to fifteen months, while upholding one-year sentences for three officers who demonstrated "passivity" and failed to intervene.
In addition to the sentences, there are varying lengths of time (up to three years) during which they will be disqualified from police employment.
Antonio G.M. became the subject of controversy in Pollensa earlier this year when he was hired by the town hall. There were calls for him to be immediately removed and for the councillor for the police, Miquel Sureda, to resign. The town hall requested a legal report into the appointment in July. Mayor Miquel Angel March has now formally decreed his expulsion.