Roger Albert Giner

Roger Albert Giner, a young Catalan anarchist and anti-Fascist stabbed by a group of neo-Nazis skinheads in the Barcelona neighbourhood of Gràcia on August 15th.

He died in the Hospital Vall d'Hebron after spending almost  months in a coma. The police, altered by a member of the public who described a group of 20 youths armed with chains and throwing stones fighting, found Roger lying on the ground with a deep wound in the neck and losing large amounts of blood. The intervention of a surgeon at the scene managed to stabilise him but he never recovered from his injuries. Police chased a group of six Nazis, arresting them in the Rambla del Prat. Amongst them was a 25-year-old skin Aitor Dávila, from Albal, Valencia, who was found with the weapon, a brass knuckleduster with attached blade - in his possession.

In November 2006, Aitor Dávila was found guilty of murder and, controversially, sentenced to only 11 years, following the jury's unanimous request for clemency, plus €90,000 compensation for Roger's family. A second defendant, Emilio Cortés, was acquitted. Effectively, the judge held that Roger was responsible in part for his own fate and therefore decided on a lesser sentence and awarded half the costs of the defence bill against his family.