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Williams He affirmed this Wednesday before the judge that he felt “humiliated” by the racist insults that two Espanyol fans gave him last season and that he is outraged that events of this nature continue to occur in the 21st century.
As reported by judicial sources collected by EFE, Williams has appeared this Wednesday as a witness by videoconference before the head of the court of instruction number 2 of Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona), which following a complaint by the Prosecutor's Office is investigating two followers of the Blue and White club for the racist insults to the Athletic player in a match played in January 2020 at the Spanish stadium.
The forward has denounced before the judge that he felt “humiliated” by the racist screams that, according to him, he heard from part of the stands when he was leaving the field, once he had been substituted in the match played at the Cornellà stadium. -El Prat last season, before Espanyol went down to the Second Division.
The judge had also summoned the two investigated in the case, although one of them has availed himself of his right not to testify and the other has not appeared in court, according to the sources.
The case was opened as a result of a pioneering complaint by the Barcelona Hate Crimes Prosecutor's Office for racist insults in the stands of a football match, in which it accused two Espanyol supporters of crimes against fundamental rights and public freedoms .
The investigation began as a result of the complaint presented to the Prosecutor's Office by the National Football League, which is accused as an accusation in the case, in which it related the racist insults made when Williams was substituted from the field of play.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, these were “cries of contempt towards him, with the undoubted intention of humiliating him and damaging his dignity for racist reasons.”
Specifically, according to the complaint, the Espanyol tier fired the player shouting “uh, uh, uh, uh”, an onomatopoeia that reproduces the sounds emitted by the monkeys and that, according to the Prosecutor's Office, “has been uttered on various occasions by groups of fans from different countries to undermine the dignity of black footballers ”.
The Prosecutor's Office commissioned an investigation to the Mossos d'Esquadra, which managed to identify the authors of the insults after examining the images of the security cameras and thanks to the information provided by Espanyol on the headlines of the towns where the screams came from. .
Police investigations made it possible to identify three followers allegedly related to the racist insults, one of them a minor.
The two identified adults were summoned as investigated before the Mossos d'Esquadra: one of them took advantage of his right not to testify and the other did not go to the police station, as has also happened today before the judge.