The National Police have arrested four people who allegedly hung a mannequin with Vinicius’s shirt on a bridge near the sports city of Valdebebas. The events occurred in the run-up to the Cup match between Real Madrid and Atlético played at the end of January and were denounced by LaLiga. The police had opened an investigation to try to discover the perpetrators, who can be charged with a hate crime. The arrest occurred around seven in the morning. According to police sources, three of the detainees are members of the Athletic Front and one a sympathizer. Those arrested, all Spanish, are 19, 21, 23 and 24 years old.
As reported by the police, the agents of the Provincial Information Brigade of the Superior Police Headquarters of Madrid, which has a group specifically dedicated to ultra groups in soccer, managed to identify the alleged perpetrators “through traces, witnesses or consultations in open sources”. Three of the authors, who are proven members of the Frente Atlético, “had been identified during matches classified as high risk within the violence prevention devices in sport.” One of them has a record for a crime of injury, according to police sources. The arrest operation has been coordinated by the Investigating Court number 38 of Madrid and the Cyberhate Section of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
The mannequin with the number 20 of the Brazilian player was accompanied by a banner: “Madrid hates Real”. Given these facts, Atlético issued a letter in which it called the events that occurred “disgusting and inadmissible” and assured that they “shame society.” “Our condemnation of any act that attacks the dignity of people or institutions is resounding and without palliatives,” the note continued. Unlike the delay in condemning the racist chants against the Brazilian player that occurred in the vicinity of the Metropolitan in the last league derby last September —Atlético took two days to show solidarity with the player and show their rejection— this time the mattress entity showed its condemnation and repudiation quickly.
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