Torture claims in Gibraltar over Spanish political stunt

GIBRALTAR’S chief minister Fabian Picardo will be investigated over allegations that a leader of a far-right Spanish nationalist party was tortured by police on the Rock.

In June Nacho Minguez unfurled a huge Spanish flag on the British Overseas Territory in a protest stunt. He is the Madrid leader of new political party Vox, which has copied Donald Trump’s motto and vows to ‘make Spain great again’. 

Minguez was promptly arrested and claims to have been held for more than seven hours, denied access to a lawyer and food, and frisked ‘disproportionately’. 

He alleges that his treatment was ‘by the direct order of the chief minister’ and done for ‘political reasons’. 

Minguez further claims that his show trial several days later had to be delayed to allow lawyers to tell him what the charges were. 

Spain’s National Court has accepted the complaint and will now launch a full investigation for ‘alleged crimes of torture and against the moral integrity of persons’.

For his part Fabian Picardo has ridiculed the claims of Spain’s modern day Gandhi, describing them as “frivolous”, “reckless”, and a “clear abuse of process” over which he ‘won’t lose a moment’s sleep”.