4F case

The 4F case concerns the events of 4 February 2006 in Barcelona, in which a policeman patrolling outside a rave was paralyzed after being hit by a falling object and nine people were arrested in consequence. At a trial two years later, seven people were convicted, one of whom was then pardoned. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the sentences were lengthened and one person committed suicide.

The 4F case caused controversy and resulted in a film, Ciutat Morta, which argued that those convicted were not responsible for the policeman's injury. The film was viewed over 500,000 times when screened on Catalan television, which then created a further debate both about the case and more general issues such as police violence and gentrification in Barcelona. New mayor Ada Colau pledged to reform the Guàrdia Urbana and an investigation decided not to overturn the convictions.

On the night of Saturday, 4 February (4F) 2006, a rave was happening at the Anarkopenya squat at 55 Calle Sant Pere Mès Baix in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona. It had been occupied since 2002. When the Guàrdia Urbana (municipal police) patrolled the area, objects including flowerpots were thrown from the roof. One policeman was hit on the head and fell unconscious. He became tetraplegic and has never spoken publicly about the events.

The police began to arrest people on the street including three men of Latin American ancestry with European passports, namely Alex Cisternas, Rodrigo Lanza and Juan Pintos. In total, there were nine arrests. According to the later testimony of Lanza and Pintos, the three men were beaten and tortured at the police station; their injuries were so bad that they were taken to Hospital del Mar [es]. At the hospital, the police officers encountered Patricia Heras and Alfredo Pestenas, who had gone there after a bicycle crash elsewhere in the city; they checked their phones and decided to arrest them also.

At trial in 2008, seven people were convicted of their charges and were sentenced to between three and five years in prison. Mayor Joan Clos had said on 5 February 2006 that the policeman had been injured by a flowerpot thrown from the roof of the squat. If he had given evidence to that effect, the prosecution case would have fallen apart, but he changed his story to say that the policeman was hit by a stone. A forensic report which confirmed that the policeman had been hit by an object falling from above was submitted to trial but ignored by the judge.

The group of three men had already served two years and therefore could be released, then on appeal to the Supreme Court of Spain their sentences were increased so they went back to jail. Cisternas was sent to Cárcel Modelo in Madrid. Despite the two having been charged and convicted together, Alfredo Pestenas was pardoned and Patricia Heras was not. She received a three-year sentence and whilst on release in April 2011, she killed herself by jumping off a balcony.

Soon after Heras had committed suicide in 2011, Xavier Artigas and Xapo Ortega met at the beginning of the 15M movement at Plaça de Catalunya and decided to make a short film commemorating her life. This project then became the film Ciutat Morta. It challenged the official narrative about the events of 4 February and suggested the people convicted were not guilty of any offences, but rather guilty of being "incívicos", namely people who were considered "uncivil" since they were assumed to be skateboarders, street drinkers, sex workers or squatters. The film accuses the police, the justice system and the doctors of permitting torture. It premiered at a squatted cinema and when it was eventually shown on Catalan television in 2015, it received over 500,000 views.

After the directors mentioned the testimony of an anonymous witness who knew who the person who had thrown the projectile and could testify that it was not any of the people convicted, calls were made to re-open the case. A representative of the Colegio de Abogados de Barcelona (Barcelona Bar Association) said there were now enough reasons to do so. Mayor Xavier Trias affirmed his faith in the actions of the police and Jordi Hereu who at the time had been responsible for security said he had taken the right actions, but if there was new evidence it should be looked at. The city council asked the public prosecutor to watch the film to see if the case should be reopened, a motion supported by Cs, ERC, ICV and Guanyem Barcelona. The Catalan Parliament then recommended that the convictions were reviewed. A demonstration was held on 4 February 2015 in which thousands of people marched through Barcelona to mourn the death of Heras and to denounce the 4F convictions.