E/CN.4/2000/16 page 25 he has been arrested for offences of robbery with violence and intimidation, housebreaking, breaches of the legislation concerning foreigners, acts of violence against representatives of authority, resistance and obstructionism, possession of weapons, petty thefts, etc. (j) Madrid 103. Four Skins stabbed a young man who had taken up the defence of a Black friend (20 June 1997). At the exit from the Bilbao underground railway station four skinheads insulted a Black boy and his friends; the result was a scuffle in which one person received a serious stab wound. The skinheads, aged between 19 and 22 years, succeeded in escaping. Government reply 104. Police inquiry No. 25.252, concerning the wounds a youth is alleged to have received while trying to defend a Black friend on 20 June 1997, was opened on the same day; inquiry No. 3974/97 was conducted by investigating magistrate No. 27 in Madrid. A provisional order to drop the case was issued on 30 July 1997 in the absence of any known perpetrator. 105. It should be mentioned that following the inquiries into the facts of the incident the victim himself, Rafael Vecino Soriano, and the witnesses, Williams Alexis Fernando and Gabriel Menéndez Arroyo, both friends of his, were in agreement that the attackers, although they had the appearance of skinheads, were more likely to have been “Bakalaeros” attracted by violence. It would therefore appear that the incident was in no way racially motivated. (k) Murcia 106. The Murcian skinheads returned to the attack (4 July 1997). This time the victims were two North Africans residing in Cieza who were leaving the law courts, where they had gone to attend to their residence permits. The Skins, who were travelling around on motorcycles and mopeds, surrounded them and set on them, beating them in the open street at 2 p.m. under the dumbfounded gaze of passers-by. On the intervention of a local police patrol, the attackers fled; but before leaving they threw one of the Moroccans to the ground and beat him with an iron bar. Government reply 107. The skinheads have returned to the attack (4 July 1997). The victims of this incident were North Africans residing in Cieza who were leaving the law courts, where they had to obtain their residence permits. The skinheads, who were travelling around on motorcycles and mopeds, surrounded them and began to beat them in the open street at 2 p.m. under the astonished gaze of the passers-by. On the arrival of a local police patrol the attackers fled, but before leaving they threw one of the Moroccans to the ground and beat him with an iron bar. 108. Police inquiry. One of the victims, Abdelkibir Maadour, a Moroccan citizen, went to the complaints office of the principal prefecture and described the incident. The provincial investigations squad prepared report No. 14.985, which was transmitted to investigating magistrate No. 13 in Murcia. A report on the condition of the victims, describing their injuries,