The Prosecutor's Office of the National Court opens an investigation into the beating of a Sánchez doll

The Prosecutor's Office of the National Court has opened proceedings to criminally investigate the lynching of a doll that represented the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. The events, which occurred on December 31, were denounced by the PSOE as allegedly constituting the crime of incitement to hatred, although it also contemplated the possibility that they fit into the criminal types of threats, public disorder, serious insults and illegal demonstration. If the Prosecutor's Office verifies that what happened represents the conduct described by these crimes, it will file a complaint before the competent investigative court, in principle, that of the National Court itself.

The complaint was presented on the 5th at the State Attorney General's Office, whose Technical Secretariat estimated that the case should be left in the hands of the prosecutors of the National Court, who will be responsible for deciding whether to prosecute it for detecting evidence of a crime or not. There are serious doubts in this regard, favored by the evolution of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) itself, in increasingly nuanced rulings to weigh the collision between the right to freedom of expression – which has protected the burning of flags or photographs of authorities—and actions that may involve incitement to hatred. The PSOE was aware of the existence of this open debate, but chose to denounce what happened precisely to favor a greater definition of the criminal response to this type of behavior, especially due to the risk they entail in terms of promoting violence.

In this sense, the complaint – signed by the head of the PSOE legal services, Alberto Cachinero – defined the events as demonstrating an agitation campaign “with violent overtones”, whose objective was to place socialist leaders and militants “in the target”. ”. The document considered it necessary to identify who organized the figurative lynching of the President of the Government, considering that the attack on his person is also an attack on an institution, the Presidency of the Executive. The complaint directly pointed to Vox as the “nexus” that had been possible to detect in all the “coordinated actions” of this type in recent months. For this reason, the letter called on the Prosecutor's Office to investigate such possible “connections”, taking into account that the beating of the doll representing Pedro Sánchez occurred after a series of “harassment” actions against the PSOE, besieging its federal headquarters in the Ferraz street in Madrid, acts that led in some cases to confrontations with the Police.

For the PSOE, freedom of expression does not protect this type of behavior. The complaint highlights the importance of a judicial response to events of the nature of a figurative lynching. He chose, however, to go to the Prosecutor's Office, and not to directly file a complaint against undetermined people, in part to encourage prosecutors to be the ones who, in their role of defending the “public interest protected by law”, decide which It is the most appropriate way to obtain the best clarification of the legal system.

In this regard, the complaint also states that “the expressions used and actions carried out represent an illegitimate attack on the honor of the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez, president of the Government and general secretary” of this political formation. The writing adds that although freedom of expression “has a very broad scope of action, covering even the most annoying, hurtful or unpleasant criticism, in its communication or externalization it is not possible to exceed the intended critical intention, giving it an insulting, denigrating or disproportionate (in this case, absolutely disproportionate and violent).” The complaint also highlights that the facts include “repeated insulting attitudes towards the PSOE and its general secretary, but they go one step further, using language absolutely taken from bygone eras, (“red shit”, “happy 1936”) at the doors. of our headquarters, which involve a public singling out of a group for reasons of an ideological nature; placing it, the PSOE it represents and its members and affiliates, at the center of attacks resulting from that accusation.”

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