LaLiga recognizes racist insults against Militão in Espanyol game

The defense of LaLiga in the process opened by the racist insults against the Brazilian Vinicius Júnior, in a game with Valencia for the Spanish Championship – held last season -, sent a written document to the court, in which it explains that the defender Éder Militão was also the target of expressions of the same nature and asked that he be called to give testimony.

On May 26 of this year, court number 10 in the city of Valencia opened an investigation into racially charged offenses against the ex-Flamengo player, who was the author of the complaint.

The court cited as being investigated three fans of the alvinegro club, who were identified by Vinicius himself and also by the camera monitoring system at the Mestalla stadium, where the game took place.

Two of them gave testimony last month, while the third involved gave clarifications yesterday.

Experts in lip reading support accusation of insults to Vinícius Júnior

LaLiga, appearing as a private prosecution in the process opened for racist insults to the Brazilian player Vinícius Júnior at the Mestalla stadium, in May, presented the court with an expert report on the lip reading of the fans prosecuted with the intention of contradicting what they declared, where they admitted the gestures, but not the racist insults.

On May 26, Court 10 of Valencia opened an investigation into racist insults that Vini Jr. denounced having received it days before in the game between Valencia and Real Madrid, for the Spanish Championship, and mentioned three Valencia fans – between 18 and 23 years old – who were identified on the one hand by the player himself and on the other by the local camera system.

Two of those investigated gave evidence in June, while the third will this Tuesday, although, like the other two, he only answered questions from his lawyers, ignoring those from the prosecutor or lawyers for the private prosecutions. Football Federation and Real Madrid, who appeared as “offended” in recent weeks (it was not when the first testimonies were made).

The Real Madrid player, the target of the insults, was summoned to testify on September 28 and was offered the possibility of doing so via videoconference, after the instructor agreed to postpone his statement due to being on vacation.

Sources in the process informed EFE Agency that the testimony of the third young man was identical to that of the other accused, that is, he admits to certain gestures but denies having uttered any insults, as well as any racist motivation.

One of this young man’s lawyers, Manuel Izquierdo, explained to journalists at the end of the statement that his client “didn’t say anything to Vinícius, he just reacted to the player’s provocations with a two-second gesture in a game of maximum rivalry” .

“Evidently, I don’t think his action constitutes a hate crime or racism, it has nothing to do with that. Real Madrid and LaLiga want everything that happened since the arrival of the visiting bus to the Mestalla to be judged, but the what the court sees is what happened in the 72nd minute. My client made a gesture, nothing more”.

On the other hand, this lawyer considers that “Vinicius doesn’t care much about what happened, as shown by the fact that he postponed his testimony. He gives the importance that this subject really has, which is null ”.

Another lawyer for the young man who testified today, Ramón Igual, warned of the “disproportion” of the accusation. “Our defendant’s was an unfortunate, rude and reprehensible reaction, this will not be denied, but we cannot put general cause against racism in these boys, as seems to be intended.”

“We cannot confuse football with football business. It is notorious that he mediated a provocation by Vinícius, who five minutes before these events was making the gesture of ‘the Monday’ to Gayá. He is a type of player that has always existed”, added this lawyer .

As a private accusation, LaLiga presented the investigating judge with several videos of Real Madrid’s arrival at the Mestalla that apparently reinforce the thesis of the racist insult to Vinícius Júnior and that could lead to legal proceedings for the events that also occurred outside the stadium and in the extension of the process investigative.

Several screenshots are attached to the complaint in which several young people can be identified shouting the onomatopoeia “uh, uh, uh” or chanting “you are a monkey” and “Vinícius, you are a monkey”.

In this expansion of the complaint, a publication of the Ultra Yomus profile on Twitter is also attached, in which the fans are invited to welcome the team and indicate to the investigating judge that this group is currently located in the extreme north, in the same bleachers where the fans investigated for racist insults were.