Everyone has ever been tempted to launch a series of insulting epithets against a politician in public. In general, most people are controlled by the Criminal Code, which punishes this type of thing with the crimes of slander or libel, especially if the accusation without evidence is made in writing. That way, it’s easy to get caught. There is new news. All those who want to honor the mother of a politician now have the endorsement of an invaluable ally: the Provincial Court of Madrid.
Since 2014, various media outlets have tried to link Pablo Iglesias and Podemos to funding from Venezuela and Iran based on police information originating from the circle of commissioners who collaborated with the Popular Party to attack their political rivals. None of these complaints has come to trial due to lack of evidence, which has not prevented very long judicial instructions that fed headlines for years. And then there were the far-right digital media that had even less scruples.
The judges of Madrid are also willing to protect the latter, as demonstrated by a sentence known this week (see full text), and for this they can manipulate the language to extremes that would embarrass the editor-in-chief of any medium.
The Court of Madrid has rejected the appeal of the lawyers of Iglesias against a sentence that exonerated a former soldier of the crime of slander for relating the former vice president to serious crimes. Not if his party received funds from abroad, but even if he was personally related to drug trafficking.
As always with sentencing, the arguments used to support the verdict are just as important. It is there that the magistrates confirm that there is a free way to impute crimes to some politicians – certainly not to all – without the need for evidence. For the same reason that in Great Britain the judges send you to prison, in Spain they tell you that there is no problem. Some comedians have had it more difficult in the last decade. Perhaps the incriminating key is pretending to be funny.
The article that provoked the complaint was signed by Diego Camacho, a former colonel who was part of Cesid, the espionage service that preceded the CNI. Camacho was not shy when referring to Iglesias and Podemos: “They have collected money from embezzlement and Venezuelan drug trafficking, as well as the fact that Mr. Pablo Iglesias provided false passports to Hezbollah terrorists, who was also going to provide them to Delcy Rodríguez.”
Hezbollah has been considered a terrorist group by the EU since 2013. Delcy Rodríguez was simply passing by since she became famous in Spain for her interview in Barajas with Ábalos in 2020 when she was Foreign Minister.
Yet another example: “Information that comes to me, but I have not yet verified it, is that part of that drug money is in the name of certain politicians in tax havens. What has been confirmed is the connection of Mr. Iglesias with drug trafficking in Venezuela. That is to say, right now there is a vice president in Spain who has been in the pay of two foreign powers”.
What do judges have to say to these criminal charges? “They are mere insinuations or generic personal attributions,” says the sentence. Delivering fake passports to a terrorist group is not exactly a generic attribution. The National Court would condemn you for that aid if it could prove it.
In relation to the phrase “his relationship with drug trafficking is something super-known according to the information I have”, the magistrates embarked on a disquisition on the word ‘link’ that would stun any police officer who has investigated drug trafficking. . The word “has many social meanings without having to be, exclusively, the imputation of a crime of drug trafficking or related to said illegal activity.”
It could be a social or family link, they say. It seems pretty clear that the phrase refers specifically to Iglesias, not his children, who are otherwise minors. You have to wonder what those judges would say if someone accused them of being linked to drug trafficking and that the subsequent excuse, in the event of a lawsuit, was that they had to judge cases of that crime and there is no more to talk about.
The judges have no problem pointing out to which media the Madrid Court grants credibility. They recall that the original ruling cites information that appeared in such reputable media as OK Diario, Periodista Digital and another unknown named Mil21, as well as a journalist addicted to conspiracies who has denounced that George Soros controls politicians from all parties and journalists in Spain. And yet another individual whose sentence highlights that he must be very important because he “is a political scientist who has written in the newspaper El País.” His great contribution was to publish an opinion article on aid to the Third World. An irrefutable source.
On whether the case could involve a crime of insults by affecting the right to honor, the court wants to make it clear that Iglesias is obliged to swallow what is thrown at him. Whether it’s true or false doesn’t matter. On the one hand, the courts in Spain have long established that politicians must accept a higher level of public scrutiny than ordinary citizens. But with this sentence they go further.
They maintain that the level of political tension is so high that this type of personal attack should not be given more importance. They justify it by “the convulsive climate that currently exists in the political debate, in which any type of disqualifications made are annulled or forgotten by the following ones, without leaving any sequel to the honor of the participants in that debate.”
You have to marvel at the level of contempt these judges feel for politics. They believe that disqualifications are so frequent that they leave no stain on the honor of politicians. It does not diminish their credibility at all that they are related to Hezbollah or drug trafficking. There is no doubt that these magistrates do not live in our world.
Then a lot is written about polarization and tension. It is said that Congress frequently turns into a war in which the prisoners are executed with a shot between the eyebrows. But what happens is that anyone can impute crimes to a politician and the judges twist those words denying the evidence to make them seem like a legitimate exercise of freedom of expression. All politicians lose, even those who rejoice when the victim is one of them. the others. And also that much hackneyed concept of democratic quality.
The rapporteur for the sentence is Francisco Manuel Oliver, who years ago held various positions in the Madrid governments of Esperanza Aguirre and Ignacio González, the last of which was Director General of Security and Interior. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have much confidence in politicians. He is the judge who bet on his particular vote for condemning the author of a graffiti on Franco’s tomb.
When politicians or journalists criticize sentences or accuse judges of partiality, they riot in indignation and sometimes ask the CGPJ for protection to protect them from these attacks that they consider unfounded. But if someone accuses Pablo Iglesias without evidence of collaborating with a Lebanese terrorist group or having some link to drug trafficking, no one should be upset or believe that his honor has been compromised.
The conclusion we can draw is that it matters a lot who you are talking about when launching those accusations. What matters is not the Penal Code, but the target of the attacks. At least, the Court of Madrid has it very clear.
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