Today was the 3rd session of the trial, with 9 witnesses: the two local police agents that arrested Josue, a police inspector of the Information Brigade specialized in "urban tribes", and the security chief oh the underground. Other witness are an Ecuadorian soldier colleague of Josue in the army, and four high ranks of the Army: a colonel, a lieutenant colonel, a lieutenant and a brigade. This four were called by the accusation to clarify, among other things, if the knife was provided by the army.
The chief of the XXI of the National police, specialized in urban tribes and ideology extremists and with 12 years of experience, has declared as "legal expert". He said after seeing the images of the accused the day of the incident that "this is a neonazi skin". This was based in the fact that he as wearing a sweater of the brand “three stroke” and by his physical appearance, as he had the head shaved. He said in various occasions that is possible to identify the ideology of the extremist by his esthetic. (The only
thing is that the soldiers in the Spanish army used to have the hair shaved, like the skinheads, and wear military clothing or the official trouser of the army that has the Spanish flag on his sides)
The defense lawyer gave to the "expert policeman" some images of the three-stroke website. The judge said "Do you mean this paper that says spring - summer collection?". The police expert" said then that the sweater, by it self, did not need to be considered as peculiar of neonazis. “This garment could be worn by any person” said the policeman. The defense lawyer said then, “Please notice that these clothes could be worn by anybody. It could be sell in a department store" to play down the importance of the declaration of the policeman.
The importance that this sweater is having in the trial is so, that according to the press it seems that If Josue has not wore that sweater that day nothing would have happened.
Version 1 is of Carlos Palomino's friends. "We entered in the wagon and we were al shocked by seeing this guy with this sweater, a sweater that only the neonazis wear. We were so shocked that no one said anything, we were speechless. Only Carlos dare to ask him about the sweater, and he was stabbed without crossing any word. Carlos only asked. "And this sweater?", he did not have time to say anything more." Other friend said. "Carlos touched his chest and asked him about the sweater", nothing more.
Version 2 is of the alleged homicidal "He pushed me in the chest or in the stomach, I do not rember well, and he told me "give me the sweater and all that you have" This his his version, he was punched by Carlos P. and he tried to rob him, what united to the threats supposedly said by the antifascists, and the brass knuckle and the knife supposedly brandish by the left wingers, could justify the defenses/argument of self-defense".
As a result of the insistence of the defense lawyer about the supposedly "nazi" affiliation of the brand, some friends of Carlos P. said "It is always wore by nazis" The defense lawyer asked the witness one time and another "But what has this sweater of Nazi?" and the witness reply "And what do I know, but the nazis wore it" Other said "I live in Alcala de Henares, there are many nazis and they wear this brand"
The two policemen that arrested Josue said that a big crowd was following him shouting "you have killed our friend, we are going to kill you!". The two local policemen saw Josue after going out of the underground. There were the 12:15 pm of the 11 of November of 2007. There are no images of the previous moments of the arrest. While he was running by the Bolivar st, at 25 meters of the agents, they saw him throwing an undetermined object. Josue reach the policeman and asked them for protection against "the people that were chasing him and were going to kill him". The three went behind the car and they were surrounded by the crowd "that started to hit us". They tried to reject the aggression with their truncheons. The accused was behind the policemen, and did not tried to defend himself. "We can avoid receiving some pushing’s, punches, and wounds" according to the police statement that was made later. They did not arrest or took the data of anyone due to their aggressive attitude. The accused was wounded as he received some kicks and punch in the eyes. He had the risk of being killed by a beating. They called an ambulance and the accused was sent to the Saint Charles Clinic Hospital. They search him and found a brass knuckle in the right pocket of his track trouser. The defense said that Josue took it and keep it while he was being beaten. One of the popular accusations used this fact to accuse him of "possession of illegal weapon"
One of the policemen said that Josue was "very calm" when he was arrested.
The declaration of the four high ranks of the army did not make much contribution, as all said that they did not know personally the accused. They were asked about the military instruction of the accused and about the knife “This knife is given as a expedition piece of cutlery. It has to be open with both hands and has no fastener, so it could be closed in a moment.”
Before the trial in the preliminary investigation, it was found that the accused had not caused any problem neither had bad behavior in the year he had been serving in the "batallón de honores del Regimiento Inmemorial del Rey del Ejército de Tierra" (Honour battallion of the King's Immemorial Regiment of the Army)
His room mate in the army, a soldier of Ecuadorian origin. Said that Josue did not seem racist in his opinion, but that his relation was only limited to the army base. "I have never sawn any sign of racism in any moment. He was my friend. He keep me company. He was very quiet" . "He was a quiet persons, pacific and with a good relation with the immigrants in his unit". "He was never involved in a violent incident". He's only arrest was for having the uniform wrinkled.
In this session most of the CCTV recordings of the underground have been shown, in one of them it could bee seen how the accused pulled out the knife and stab Carlos P. in the chest.
The accusation has shown also a photo, provided by the "antifascist coordinating committee" of Madrid where a young man can be shown with his right arm raised, which is supposed to be a photo of the accused years ago. It has been discovered that this is not josue in the photo, but that is a photo of Bulgarian hooligans without any relation with Josue.
With this finish the first week of the trial against Josue.
More CCTV recordings will be shown in the 4th session of the trial, and analyzed by legal experts. It is also expected to have the first conclusions of the trial.
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Josué Estébanez of 25 years old, was born and risen in Galdacano, a working class locality in the outskirts of Bilbao, in the Vasque region in the north of Spain. There in a block lives his mother, his grandparent and his brother. His father, Bernardo, died 10 years ago. His brother at the time of the incident lived with Josue in a flat in Fuenlabrada, a city in the Madrid region, but he had to flee as he was threatened by the leftwingers.
His mother Victoria, is in Madrid for the trial, and seems that has not talked about the crime with anybody of his family. The grandfather of Josue, in his 80's, remembered that Josue had worked as electrician in some constructions, and he thought that this was still his job. "I have not seen him since some years ago. I know that he has been in Almeria and in Madrid, working in his profession". The grandmother said that "They do not told me anything. The only thing I know is that I have not seen my grandson since a year ago". The family has concealed he fact that Josue had join the army, something common in the Vasque region due to the threats of the ETA terrorist and his political branch. The neighbourhoods remember his family as normal and discreet. They remember that before dying, the father was employed in a company. "The sons have not been seen here since long time ago, and she didn't talked too much about them" A cousin of Victoria, said "We are a normal family and we do not want to know a thing about this event. All the family is affected"