A Catholic university in Spain has condemned the “hatred” shown by far-left extremists who brutally beat a group of students for wearing shirts advertising the name of their college.
Spain’s National Police Corps said in a statement that two men have been arrested on suspicion of assault and perpetrating offences against fundamental rights (‘hate crime’) after attacking the students at a bar in Murcia.
The incident took place in the early hours of the morning a few days ago when a group of students wearing San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) shirts were approached by individuals who took issue with their attire.
According to local media, the suspects expressed anger over the shirts, then threats, before one of the men “without warning” began to beat a male student from the group.
La UCAM estudia personarse en la defensa de los jóvenes agredidos por llevar su camiseta https://t.co/K5xUFtGTzc vía @cope_es
— COPE Murcia (@cope_murcia) August 15, 2018
A student who came to his friend’s aid was then smashed in the head with a bottle by one of the attackers, whose assault resulted in one of the Catholic college attendees suffering a haemorrhaged eyeball and requiring stitches.
After taking statements from the witnesses and hearing descriptions of their assailants, detectives were able to identify the two men, who were aged 19 and 28 and already known to police from their background and membership of “ultra-left groups”, reports regional newspaper La Verdad.
In a statement announcing the institution would be putting its full support behind the students who were attacked, UCAM expressed “repulsion” at the attack, which it said “could only be the fruit of hatred that some are promoting”.
Missionary Attacked in Spain: ‘Be Afraid of Me, I’m an Arab’ https://t.co/kCeKa3joad pic.twitter.com/zl8e3LDZGH
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 5, 2016
Spain has seen increasing extremism and violence from the radical left in recent years, with Breitbart London previously reporting incidents such as that in which a 20-year-old woman was beaten by more than a dozen hooded youths for the ‘crime’ of wearing a bracelet which featured the national flag.
And in December last year, 55-year-old Víctor Láinez was beaten to death outside a bar in Zaragoza after he was targeted by far-left activists for wearing the colours of the Spanish flag on his braces.
According to local media, Rodrigo Lanza, an individual known to police for links to local antifascist groups called the man a “fascist” and hurled insults at him for wearing the red and yellow braces, before leaving the scene.
When Láinez went to exit the bar a short time after, he was pursued by Lanza and three others — reportedly a man and two women — who struck him on the head with a metal bar and repeatedly kicked his slumped body in a murder that prompted the previous centre-right government to demand politicians show “zero tolerance” to violence-promoting ideologies.
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