Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 officers and thrown from the car. A judicial investigation into the incident was opened in Investigating Court 2 of Badalona, which ordered officers from the Civil Guard to conduct the inquiry. In an unrelated case, the investigatory phase of a case brought against six Mossos d’Esquadra officers for assault, degrading treatment, illegal detention and falsification of official documents was closed at the end of June and referred for trial. Lucian Padurau was allegedly beaten and threatened during arrest in July 2006 when he was mistaken for a man wanted on robbery charges. His wife, three months pregnant at the time, was also violently handled and has presented a complaint of ill-treatment to the same court. The criminal investigation into the death of Juan Galdeano Martínez (the so-called “Roquetas case”) ended on 27 April with the conviction of three Civil Guard officers and the acquittal of another five. The officers were on trial for involvement in the death in custody of Juan Galdeano Martínez at the Roquetas del Mar police station on 24 July 2005 (see AI Index: EUR 41/010/2005). The commanding officer José Manuel Rivas was convicted for assault and degrading treatment and sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment, three years’ disqualification from office and a fine. Two other officers were convicted of injury and abuse of authority, and fined. The public prosecutor had requested a three year and six month prison sentence for José Manuel Rivas (reduced from an original request of 11 years). The private prosecution asked for seven years and three months. The public and private prosecutions both submitted appeals, considering that there had been an error of law in the process which had led to the imposition of such low penalties. The defendants also appealed. 119 representing a 13 per cent increase on the statistics from 2005. The number of women killed by other family members increased by 50 per cent to 18. Criminal complaints lodged for domestic violence increased by 8.4 per cent. AI has expressed concern over Spain’s measures to combat violence against women as being insufficient. Specifically, the organisation has highlighted the fact that many women have no legal assistance when they make a complaint of abuse; many have no access to specialised attention centres; some cases are heard by non-specialist courts; the specialised training for some judges, prosecutors and police is not available to all; some lawyers’ associations do not have sufficiently resourced or specialised roster services; prosecutors and police fail to investigate cases in depth if the woman retracts her complaint, despite the offence being a publicly prosecutable crime; and irregular migrant women are impeded from accessing necessary services. AI also highlighted the importance of doctors having adequate training in this area to be able to detect evidence of abuse and report it. On 7 March senators from the Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrera Español, PSOE) proposed an amendment to the Equality Law which would oblige persons reporting domestic violence to the police to testify against their abusive partner in court. At present immediate relatives and spouses are exempt from the obligation to testify against each other. The move is intended to prevent cases of domestic violence being closed due to lack of evidence when the victim is the only witness. However, the possibility of imposing sanctions against the accuser if they decide to withdraw their complaint or refuse to testify has not been resolved. Violence against Women According to official statistics from the Women’s Institution of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs 68 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner in 2006, Amnesty International AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007