Justice for Samuel, Justice for David, Justice for Ihsane

“Justice for Samuel”: thousands of people mobilized in Spain to protest the murder of a young gay man. Although the investigation is ongoing, witnesses say that it is a homophobic crime since the attackers yelled “fag” at him while beating him to death. 

Between banners that read “Enough of LGBTphobia” and rainbow flags, more than thousands protesters gathered in different cities of Spain this Monday to demand “justice” for the murder of Samuel Luiz Muñiz, 24 years old. The crime occurred during the early hours of Saturday when the young man left a bowling alley in the city of La Coruña, in Galicia, and was approached by a group of people who beat and kicked him until he was seriously injured. A few hours later he died in the hospital. At first, the Police investigated the attack as caused by an argument that arose because Samuel was making a video call and a group of people who passed by thought that he was filming them with his cell phone. However, one of the friends who was with the young man said on Twitter that the violence was motivated because he was homosexual. This unleashed a wave of outrage on social media, joined by artists and other public figures, who condemned violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity with the hashtag #JusticiaParaSamuel. Even the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, described the event as “a savage and ruthless act”, and assured: “We will not take a step back in rights and freedoms. Spain is not going to tolerate it ”. Also the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, advocated “not leaving room for hatred.” 

This Monday, a few hours before thousands of people demonstrated in the streets, the friend told in an interview with the newspaper El Mundo that after Samuel explained that he was not filming, they responded: “Stop recording us if you don’t want us to kill you, fag ”. According to his story, the young man replied “queer of what” and a man began to attack him. Within minutes, others joined. There were seven people in total, who while they were beating him yelled “fag” at him. “They killed Samuel for a fagot” was one of the claims that was heard in the squares of the different cities. This is the hypothesis held by the friends who were witnesses and the family. “We have been warning that, in recent times, the rise in violence against the LGBTQIA+ community is overwhelming. Faced with this, we took to the streets once again to demand an end to the aggressions, murders and humiliations that we suffer every day, ”a spokesperson for the Marika Movement in Madrid told the newspaper Público. ”  

We stand in solidarity with spanish queer people, protestors, family and friends rallying in the streets in Spain and demand the attackers be brought to justice.⁠  We’ve seen the LGBTQIA+ community always face new attacks around the world. In Belgium, we remember the homophobic murders of David Polfliet and Ihsane Jarfi. Because no one should ever die hearing faggot has a last word, we stand in solidarity against all forms of LGBTQ+ hate.⁠ Loosing innocent queer lives is unacceptable. Justice for Samuel.