Protests in Spain As The Gay Man Who Was Beaten Dies
BARCELONA —
People took to the streets of Spain's biggest cities on Monday evening to express their anger at the death of a man in a suspected homophobic attack at the weekend.
Crowds filled a central Madrid square and activists marched down a major street in Barcelona, chanting slogans and waving placards and rainbow-colored flags.
"The response to the wave of LGBT-phobic hatred that ended the life of Samuel in A Coruna is overwhelming," the left-wing Podemos party that governs in coalition with the ruling Socialists wrote on Twitter.
Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was beaten near a nightclub in the early hours of Saturday in the town of A Coruna, northern Spain, by several assailants including one who shouted a common pejorative description of a gay person, state broadcaster RTVE reported. He later died in the hospital.
Jose Minones, a local government representative in the region where A Coruna is located, tweeted that the police were working to find out what happened and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Local media quoted him as saying the investigation would show whether or not the attack was motivated by homophobia.
Interior Ministry data shows 278 hate crimes related to sexual orientation or gender identity were reported in Spain in 2019, an 8.6 percent increase on the previous year. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights warns only a fraction of hate crimes are reported to the police.
In central Barcelona, 21 year-old Sergio Cuevas said: "I think this crime happened because homophobia kills.”
Guardian:
Spanish police have arrested three people in connection with the killing of a young gay man whose death in a possible homophobic attack over the weekend shocked the country and sparked nationwide protests.
Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was out with friends in the Galician city of A Coruña in the early hours of Saturday when an argument started outside a nightclub.
His friends told El Mundo that Luiz had stepped out of the club to make a video call when two passersby accused him of trying to film them on his phone. Luiz explained he was talking to a friend by video, but he was allegedly attacked by one of the passersby and left with a badly bruised face.
Five minutes later, the assailant allegedly returned with 12 others who beat Luiz unconscious. He was taken to hospital, where he died later on Saturday morning.
On Tuesday evening, Spain’s PolicĂa Nacional said three people had been arrested as “the alleged perpetrators of the violence assault that ended Samuel Luiz’s life”.
In a statement, the force said the three were aged between 20 and 25 and lived in A Coruña. It did not rule out further arrests and said the investigation would remain open until all the facts of the case had been clarified.
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