The human rights defense collective Irídia has filed an appeal against the decision of a court in Melilla to provisionally dismiss the complaint filed against the Guardia Civil by Mahamat, a migrant who survived the jump over the Melilla fence on June 24, 2022, in which 37 people died and 76 remain missing, according to the organization this Thursday.
The complaint was filed by Irídia on December 23, 2025 against one of the commanders of the operation, already identified, and against the officers who took part in the action, considering that the facts could amount to crimes of torture, aggravated bodily harm, failure to render assistance, and administrative prevarication, with the aggravating factors of racism and abuse of the status of authority agents.
The court has decided to dismiss the case without ordering any of the diligences requested by Irídia to identify the officers involved, such as the provision of the operation rosters or the recordings from the cameras, the helicopter, or the drone, without taking testimony from the victim or ruling on the request to join the proceedings to the investigation already opened for those facts.
In a press appearance this Thursday at the Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya, Irídia's lawyer, Laura Medina, denounced that, despite admitting that these are criminal acts, the court has dismissed the complaint "against an unknown author without having carried out any investigation to identify him."
She stressed that this is a highly technologized border when it comes to controlling migrant people, but that that technology is not used when possible torture must be clarified.
Account of the victim and context
Mahamat, cofounder of Refugees in Libya, left Sudan when he was seven years old and crossed Chad, Libya, Algeria and Morocco before reaching the border perimeter of Melilla, where he informed the officers that he wanted to seek asylum and that he had refugee status recognized by Acnur.
He recounts that, while he remained on the ground, detained and obeying orders, an officer struck him with a baton on the head, causing a traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness, and that he was later handcuffed for hours among injured and dead people.
He also maintains that he was forcibly returned to Morocco, without any procedure being initiated and without allowing the Red Cross to provide him medical assistance.
"That day I lost my dignity, with my hands tied. I wonder what the limit of this cruelty is," the victim has stated, whose testimony has been considered highly consistent in an expert report by the Centre Sira carried out in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol.
At the press conference, in which representatives of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Sindicat Popular de Venedors Ambulants de Barcelona and Regularització Ja also took part, Mahamat recalled his best friend, missing that day, and has assured that they will go forward until achieving justice and effective reparation "for those who arrived and for those who were left along the way".