The Supreme Court summons the same police officer twice and nobody notices until he is about to give his statement

The list of witnesses to take the stand on Wednesday morning in the Catalan independence trial in the Supreme Court featured a repeat witness, but nobody noticed until he was sitting before the court.

It was National Police inspector number 87.567, and the person who noticed it was not an employee in the Supreme Court or a member of the tribunal, but Jordi Pina, the defence counsel of Jordi Sànchez, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull:

Marchena: "Will the next witness please take the stand, National Police corps inspector number 87.576."

Pina: "I may be mistaken, but I believe the witness has already previously appeared before this court."

Agent 87.576: "Yes, last Thursday afternoon."

Marchena: "What would we do without you, mister Pina. Well then, you may leave. Do pay attention, mister Pina, to avoid repetitions such as this one. Managing summons for 500 witnesses is no small task. As long as there is only one that is repeated, everything is fine. Will the next witness please take the stand."

The incident made everyone laugh, starting with the presiding magistrate of the court himself, Manuel Marchena, who usually scolds people who chuckle during the trial.

In any event, it has not been explained how this repetition could not have been detected earlier, because the witness had taken the stand last Thursday and, in spite of this, he came on Wednesday and waited to be summoned without explaining it or without anyone paying attention to him if he did so. 

In his statement last Thursday, this "duplicate" witness had explained that he had intervened in the Centre de Formació d'Adults Joan Carles I in Lleida on 1-O, and that he assisted the person who had a heart attack in person, calling to ask for an ambulance.

Another "out of place" witness

When another witness, National Police officer number 113.391, who had been summoned on Wednesday afternoon, arrived in the morning, Marchena carried on with the joke:

Marchena: "As mister Pina may have already noticed, the next witness, number 113.931, has also been summoned for this afternoon. We will not call him now and will question him in the afternoon, thus avoiding the bis in idem."

Marchena: "Better still, let us summon him now. We were looking forward to his collaboration. The next witness is national police officer number 113.391."  

50 year old "old people"

There has been at least one other moment on Wednesday in which questionings gave rise to mirth among the audience without drawing the ire of Marchena.

The episode featured, precisely, officer 113.391, who was supposed to give his statement in the afternoon and, once again, Jordi Pina, when the attorney asked him about the people in the polling stations in Lleida.

The officer spoke of "old people" referring to people aged 50 and above, which Pina took as having been called old, upon which the officer apologised:  

Pina: "Specifically, were they elderly people or old people? Are we talking about octogenarian grandparents or people over the age of 50?"

Officer 113.391: "Over the age of 50."

Pina: "I will take this as..."

Officer 113.391: "I am sorry if you have felt..."

Pina: "There is always the first time they tell you... Do you remember the attitude of these elderly people, or these 50-year-old old people?"

Officer 113.391: "Their attitude was... If what you want to know if they were violent or they made aggressive demonstrations towards us, no."

These moments stand in contrast with the bitter clashes between Marchena and Benet Salellas, the defence counsel of Jordi Cuixart, when the former interrupted the latter's questioning due to the fact that he deemed his questions to be "inappropriate."