The former leader of Vox in Andalusia Francisco Serrano has just lost the fifth lawsuit he filed against the secretary general of FACUA-Consommations en action, the journalist Rubén Sánchez. This time, he wants him to be sentenced to two years in prison and to pay compensation of 15,000 euros to his daughter for a “non-existent” defamation offense, according to the sentence reported Wednesday by the Facua website.
The president of the Criminal Court number 11 of Seville ruled that Sánchez did not slander Serrano’s eldest daughter when he stated that after obtaining public aid of 2.5 million for which he is being prosecuted for subsidy fraud, the former Andalusian parliamentarian He named his Mercedes vehicle in his name, later specifying that he had done so with a company of which he is a co-owner. The judgment establishes that she also did not commit the crime of defamation when she stated that she had asked the investigator in charge of the case against the former director of Vox to designate her as being under investigation.
In his judgment, delivered on September 4 and communicated to the parties this Tuesday, the judge emphasizes that the publication of the journalist’s two tweets “does not entail either the assertion that what is known is false, nor a reckless disregard for the truth.”, two of the essential elements for the commission of a defamation offense to occur. “Therefore, the accused will be acquitted,” he concludes.
In her statement at the trial, Serrano’s daughter assured that Sánchez accused her in his tweets of “raising assets” and that after its publication she had been “harassed” by journalists, although she could not provide the name of any of them or that of the media for those who worked. He also stated that the secretary general of FACUA had clearly indicated his identity in his tweets, although in reality the journalist had been careful not to give his name or indicate that he was Francisco Serrano’s partner in his law firm.
The former leader of Vox began to take legal action against Rubén Sánchez after filing a complaint against him with the UDEF that gave rise to a judicial procedure where he is being prosecuted for subsidy fraud, fraud and accounting crime. The general secretary of FACUA exercises the popular accusation against him and requests up to 10 years in prison, under the legal direction of the Sevillian lawyer Francisco Tejado, the same one who defended him in the case in which he was just acquitted and in all the proceedings in which he faced Serrano.
Previously, Serrano had been frustrated in his attempts to have Sánchez tried for defamation – for the same tweets for which he has now been acquitted in front of his daughter – and for revealing secrets. He also filed a rectification action against the journalist for those tweets, which was dismissed. In addition, Serrano acted as legal director in a procedure, which has been archived, in which a National Police officer denounced the FACUA secretary general for non-existent hate crimes and insults against the body.
