A TRIAL IN SPAIN
SIR,—During the recent murder trial in Barcelona allegations were made by two of the defendants of
the duress to which they were subjected while in prison. A Spanish woman, Maria Pilar Velasco, stated that she was kept tied to a chair for four days without food to make her sign a statement, and one of the Americans involved in the case, Jimmy Johnston, was deprived of food and sleep for eight days to make him sign a statement referring to a knife said to have been used two days before the murder, which was alleged to have belonged to another, of the defendants accused of having com- mitted the murder.
All six of the defendants, including the Scots girl Joan Bryden who was accused of complicity in the murder, wcre detained in Spanish prisons without trial for over fifteen months since a few days after the murder of Francisco Rovirosa Closas in Novem- ber, 1962.
The harsh treatment inflicted on Sefiora Velasco and Mr. Johnston is to be deplored,' and public opinion should be made aware of the brutality of the Spanish police, and the reluctance of the Spanish Government to put an end to torture inflicted on defendants M prison awaiting trial.
DAVID CLEGG
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