The prosecution denounces that the messages were intended to harass the parents and isolate the minor to achieve their “social exclusion” for the fact of “exercising their right” to use Spanish
The Court of Instruction number 12 of Barcelona has summoned to testify as imputed to four people who published expressions on the social network Twitter that, according to the prosecution, are “humiliating and hurtful” against the family of a minor enrolled in the Turó de Drac school in Canet de Mar and who promoted the lawsuit that made the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) force the center to teach 25% of the classes in Spanish . Some of the defendants made an appeal to isolate that student, while another expressly pointed to the affected family, with names and surnames.
Judge Sergio Escalona has summoned the four defendants to testify for the next September 1 and 5 and has asked the TSJC for testimony on the sentence of 25% of Spanish in the Canet de Mar school and the order of the high court in which the Conselleria d’Educació and the director of the center were required to adopt the necessary measures to preserve the protection and privacy of the minor.
The judicial investigation has been initiated as a result of the complaint filed by prosecutor against hate crimes in Barcelona, Miguel Angel Aguilarwhich attributes to the four defendants, without prejudice to the investigation of the case, a crime of injury to dignity for discriminatory reasons, in competition with another against moral integrity.
The public accusation maintains in its brief that the defendants proceeded to point out the minor’s family “expressly” in retaliation for having requested the application of the TSJC ruling, with the intention” of “humiliating and harassing her”, isolating the minor with respect to his classmates and, therefore, his “social exclusion” for the fact of “exercising his right” to use the Spanish language in the terms established by the high court.
“Anguish and anxiety”
With this procedure, in the opinion of the prosecution, the complainants sought to generate in the family “feelings of anguish, anxiety and intimidation” that would make them desist from their claim, “serving”, in addition, “as a warning” for other people who “could have identical linguistic approaches”. “In this context of harassment”, the accusation affects, and “seeking that effect of isolation of the minor”, the accused launched messages such as: “Then create the group P5Ñput the child alone and you make him 50-50″.
“Please, we want to know the name and address where the family lives”, “it is not the fault of the school. It is the fault of the family that has made the complaint” or “we will make the cannelloni with the meat of a Spanish-speaking child, as has been done all my life”, are other tweets.
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“All those reported have not removed these messages, at least until the date the investigations were concluded, nor have they expressed apology or regret for their publication”points out the prosecutor, who adds that their accounts were accessible to any Twitter user.
“The current spread of new technologies at the service of communication, which the defendants made use of,” he stresses, “exponentially intensifies the damage of statements or messages that, at another time, could have limited their pernicious effects to a reduced and selected target group”, details the accusation. In his opinion, “the incorporation of humiliating messages such as those published” by the defendants on social networks “with a vocation for perpetuity” “inexorably” entails the loss of control over their “zigzag” dissemination and multiplies the impact “through successive and renewed” transmission acts.