MADRID, 28 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
LaLiga will formulate an indictment requesting the opening of an oral trial against the RCD Espanyol fan who allegedly uttered racist insults to Athletic Club striker Iñaki Williams during a LaLiga Santander match on January 25, 2020, after the Odio de Barcelona asked for a two-year prison sentence for him on Thursday.
“Once LaLiga is notified and summoned by the Court to file an accusation within its turn, it will act in similar terms to the letter from the Prosecutor’s Office,” LaLiga announced this Friday, which had already denounced the facts at the time and that He acts as a private prosecutor.
After the match on January 25, 2020 at the RCDE Stadium, Williams, the son of Ghanaian parents, revealed that he had received racist insults when he was substituted by Raúl García during the 69th minute. The prosecutor in the case explained that the accused fan, “with obvious contempt for the black color of the player’s skin”, he uttered “screams and staged racist gestures of contempt”, imitating primates with gestures and repeating the onomatopoeia ‘uh, uh, uh, uh’.
The indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office, consulted by Europa Press, also asks to impose a fine of 5,400 euros for an alleged racist hate crime. It is the first time that the Barcelona Hate Crimes service has been sued for racist insults in the stands of a football field against a player, and the prosecutor also asks that the accused be prohibited from accessing football stadiums for five more years of the prison term imposed in the sentence.
“LaLiga, which at the time denounced the alleged racist insults against Williams before the Prosecutor’s Office, and as it recently advanced, will formulate an indictment requesting the opening of an oral trial, following its faithful commitment to denounce, within its powers, all the insults and racist, xenophobic, homophobic chants, etc.”, the employer said.
Two months ago, Court No. 2 of First Instance of Cornellá de Llobregat issued an order to open an oral trial against the accused. The complaint that started the case was also directed against a second fan, but the prosecutor asked to file the case for him as he did not find sufficient evidence to maintain the accusation.
It is not the first time that LaLiga denounces racist insults to players by fans before the Prosecutor’s Office; it also did so with the situation of Real Madrid striker Vinícius Jr. at the Camp Nou in October 2021 and at the Visit Mallorca Estadi in March 2022, both complaints filed; with Nico Williams, Athletic player and brother of Iñaki, at the Benito Villamarín in March 2022, also archived; and with the then Cádiz footballer Carlos Akapo at Nuevo Los Cármenes in February 2022, still in the investigation phase.
All complaints of this type from LaLiga are processed through its LaLiga Integrity and Security department, which forwards them to the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport, as well as the Committee for RFEF Competition. LaLiga also denounces and appears as an accusation in any criminal procedure related to violent acts that have occurred in the field of football.
