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Wallet-stealing immigrant tortured by Guardia Civil

Two officers of Spain's Guardia Civil police force were sentenced on Thursday to a year in prison for torturing an immigrant who stole a purse in Valencia.

Wallet-stealing immigrant tortured by Guardia Civil
Members of the motorbike brigade of Spain's Guardia Civil force. File photo: Madrid Emergency Vehicles

In the 2008 incident, two officers of Spain's gendarmerie tortured a Cuban immigrant who stole a purse at a shopping mall in the Valencia municipality of Alboraia, 20minutos reported on Thursday. 

Having detained the man, the officers then drove him down a back road to Tavernes Blanques (Valencia) where they threatened and beat him.

Unfortunately for them, the actions of Antonio Cano and Carlos Palomo were caught on a recording device which had been placed in their vehicle by the force's internal affairs unit.  

That device had been installed because Palamo was suspected of drug trafficking and money laundering.  

"Let's throw him in the ditch and see what's happens," the pair were recorded as saying at one point.

At another point, the two men were caught singing along to the song 'Cuando salí de Cuba' (When I left Cuba). One of the men could then be heard saying: "This is the best part of the job".

The two men were originally found guilty of torture but then appealed in May 2012.

In their appeal, officers Antonio Cano and Carlos Palomo said the recording equipment had been of insufficient quality to capture the incident in question.

They also argued that they had not been presented with a chance to interrogate the victim and that they played no role in inflicting his injuries.

However, Spain´s Supreme Tribunal on Thursday rejected their appeal.

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IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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