In line with its latest resolutions in relation to complaints filed against ministers or politicians, the supreme court has rejected the one presented by the general secretary of Junts jordi sanchez against the deputy and still president of the PP, Pablo Casadofor a crime of slander with publicity, and subsidiarily for insults with publicity, for the statements he made at a rally in Zaragoza, in which he said that he was not going to give him lessons in democracy “a man who has been sentenced to 9 years in prison, who has wrecked a car Civil Guard and has come up with a megaphone to instigate violence against state administrations”.
Casado endorsed his words in a tweet, in which he said: “The world upside down: a criminal sentenced to 9 years in prison for carrying out a coup against the State and destroying police patrols denounces those who demand compliance with the law and coexistence & rdquor ;, in reference to the sentence that the Supreme Court itself issued for the procés.
The Supreme considers that controversial expressions “arise in the course of a public discussion that deals with matters of public interest and that concerns people with public relevance which, on the one hand, excludes, in principle, the affectation of privacy and, on the other, expands the limits of permissible criticism, both because of the pattern that represents the normal way in which such controversies run and because of the underlying public interest . So, in these cases, not only inoffensive or indifferent criticism is protected by the freedoms of expression and information, “but others that may annoy, disturb or upset & rdquor ;.
Casado’s words came after Junts per Catalunya, as well as the Government, announced the filing of a lawsuit against him for hate crimes, slander and insults, for his statements in which he accused the central Executive of tolerating “the signaling of a five-year-old boy in Canet, in Catalonia & rdquor;, and asked himself: “Can it really be tolerated that a five-year-old child can be stoned, isolated in class? Can it be tolerated that there are teachers with instructions not to let children go to the bathroom because they speak in Spanish? & rdquor ;.
Regarding Casado’s subsequent reaction to the announcement of Sànchez’s hate crime complaint, the Supreme Court insists that is part of a political debate between people with such a quality and that affects public and not private aspects of their lives.