Catalonia: Two and a Half Years in Prison for ‘Statements That Rejected Immigration and Multiculturalism’ on the Internet

20 Minutos

October 10, 2013

A judge in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona) has sentenced each of the three officials of an association that was linked to the party Alianza Nacional [National Alliance] to two and a half years in prison for incitement to hatred and discrimination by spreading their Nazi ideology on the internet.

In his sentence, the judge of Penal Court No. 1 of Vilanova sentences three members of the management council of the Asociación Frente Joven Obrero (FJO) [Youth Worker Front Association] for the crimes of provocation to discrimination and illegal association.

The judgment maintains that the group committed incitement to hatred and discrimination by disseminating on its web page “statements that rejected immigration and multiculturalism” and that blamed foreigners for taking jobs and housing from Spanish people, as well as fomenting crime and drug-trafficking.

The judge also condemns the three accused – president, secretary and treasurer of the association – to pay a fine of 1,620 euros, despite applying the mitigating circumstance of improper delays due to hold-ups in the trial, imposes a penalty that requires them to serve time in prison, given “the seriousness of actions, the time in which the activity of the association was prolonged, around two years, and the publicity they have obtained for their ideas.”

The propaganda disseminated by the association, in the opinion of the judge, cannot be protected by freedom of expression, given that this principle “cannot cover what is called hate speech”, which includes “apology for terrorism and genocide, Holocaust denial (classed as a crime in many European states, but not in Spain), speech that is discriminatory towards certain collectivities and xenophobic discourse.”

Translation via Islam Versus Europe.