The Madrid Prosecutor’s Office requests four years in prison for four members of the ultra group Frente Atlético accused of hanging a doll with the shirt of Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior on a bridge near the Real Madrid sports city.
As reported this Tuesday by the Prosecutor’s Office, the alleged perpetrators of this action, which occurred on January 26 of this year before a match between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, are members of the Atlético Front, “ideologically identified with the extreme right.” ».
The Public Ministry charges them with a crime of threats and another against fundamental rights and public freedoms, while demanding joint compensation of 6,000 euros for the moral damages caused to the footballer.
The indictment states that in the early hours of January 25 to 26, 2023, the four members of the Atlético Front, “positions by common agreement” and coinciding with the celebration of the Copa del Rey match that was going to be played at the Stadium Santiago Bernabéu between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, they headed to a bridge on the M-11 near the Madrid sports city.
Once there, the four defendants, “as an unequivocal sign of contempt and rejection of the victim’s skin color and motivated by a desire to undermine her feeling of tranquility,” hung an inflatable doll-type mannequin measuring about 165 centimeters with a rope. tall, with black skin and hair color.
The doll was wearing a Real Madrid soccer team shirt, with the name of the player Vinicius on the back and with his number, as well as some stones as weights tied with insulating tape on what would be his ankles. In addition, they hung a red fabric banner with soft letters with the motto ‘Madrid hates Real’, 12.90 meters long and 1.70 meters wide.
Shortly after, one of them, ABR, “as a vindication and justification of the action,” published through the account it managed on the social network X (formerly Twitter), a first photograph of the bridge where the banner and the hanging doll
The message went viral due to the publicity achieved on social networks “and the traditional media came to echo the news, thus increasing the injury to the protected legal good consisting of the dignity of the person, in this case both of the victim Vinicius , as well as the group it represents,” the letter adds.
This man published a second photograph where the inflatable doll appeared at the time of preparations, with the player’s shirt Vinicius leaning next to a wall, incorporating it with the hashtag #AllSomosVini, “thus increasing the contempt towards that person, since he was employed to “show support for the victim and rejection of the action taken.”
The Prosecutor’s Office recalls that on May 24, the Court of Instruction number 26 of Madrid issued an order prohibiting the four investigated from approaching less than 1,000 meters from the player Vinicius Jr. and from communicating with him by any means.
It also prohibited them from approaching less than 1,000 meters from their workplace, from approaching less than one hundred meters from the Santiago Bernabéu and Civitas Metropolitano stadiums during the celebration of soccer matches played according to the Professional Soccer League calendar, and to approach less than 1,000 meters from all stadiums in the League.
The trial for these events is scheduled to be held in the coming months.
The action of the Frente Atlético ultras was widely condemned by Spanish society, as well as by Real Madrid and the player Vinicius Junior.
The white club issued a statement in which it described the action as “an act of hate and discrimination that has no place in football.”
For his part, the Brazilian player expressed his “indignation” at what happened and assured that “I am not going to allow anyone to intimidate me.”
The Prosecutor’s Office requests that the four defendants be convicted of one crime of threats and another against fundamental rights and public freedoms.
If found guilty, they could face sentences of up to four years in prison.