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Man wins €200,000 damages for eye lost to rubber bullet

Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones - [email protected]
Man wins €200,000 damages for eye lost to rubber bullet
Nicola Tanno. Photo: http://stopbalesdegoma.org/

Nicola Tanno lost an eye after being shot with a rubber bullet during World Cup celebrations in 2010.

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Catalonia's regional government has paid €200,000 compensation to a man who was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet by officers from Los Mossos, Catalonia’s police force.

Nicola Tanno, who is originally from Italy, lost an eye when he was shot during World Cup celebrations in 2010. He was crossing Barcelona’s Plaza España as thousands of people were celebrating Spain’s World Cup victory when he was caught in the firing line.

In exchange for the compensation, Nicola Tanno has dropped the court case he launched to find the man responsible for shooting the rubber bullet into his eye, as well as any other criminal or civil actions.

 

 

But despite the compensation Tanno told Catalan daily El Periódico that it was "shameful" that the policemen responsible "will never pay for what they did". 

After the loss of his eye, Tanno became a spokesman for the Stop Rubber Bullets campaign. The Catalan parliament eventually banned the bullets in 2014.

Catalonia’s Minister of the Interior sent a letter to Tanno offering his personal apologies for the incident on Wednesday.

"I am sure that despite the agreement that was finally settled upon, we can never fully repair the damages you have suffered," wrote Jordi Jané, who asked for "forgiveness for what you have suffered", according to a statement released by Tanno.

Another Spaniard, Ester Quintana, who lost an eye after being shot with a rubber bullet during the general strike in November 2012, recently received compensation of €260,000 as the Catalan government reassesses previous rubber bullet cases. 

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