The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has ratified the five-month prison sentence handed down to former Vox activist Luis Felipe Ulecia for collaborating in the vandalism of the feminist mural in Ciudad Lineal in March 2021.
This is stated in a ruling, to which Europa Press has had access, in which the Chamber rejects the appeal filed by the convicted man against the sentence handed down by the Provincial Court of Madrid last March, which has now been confirmed.
The decision of the court of first instance punished him as an accomplice to a crime against dignity in conjunction with a crime against artistic heritage. In addition, he was required to compensate the Madrid City Council in the amount of 10,065 euros and pay a fine of 1,350 euros.
The accused was deputy secretary of the Youth of the party led by Santiago Abascal and occupied twelfth place on Vox’s list for the Madrid City Council in the last municipal elections.
During the trial, he dissociated himself from the vandalism, stating that he had only bought paint for the company where he works dedicated to the maintenance of neighborhood communities and that he had left it in a warehouse, without knowing if who could have taken it. She also assured that she shared “certain ideologies” related to feminism with the party of which she was a member.
The Chamber of the High Court of Madrid considers that the conviction is not issued for facts other than the object of the accusation and that there is also no contradiction between the narration of the facts and the legal basis, since it was “convicted on the basis of facts related to the accusation” previous purchase of materials that were used to boycott the mural.
The magistrates considered it proven that in the early morning of March 8, 2021, the date on which International Women’s Day is celebrated, “with clear contempt for women, he contributed to erasing with black paint the images of all the women that were represented in the municipal feminist mural located in the La Concepción sports center.
This mural was created with the aim of occupying a public space to give visibility to some important women in history and as a sign of rejection of gender violence. The Madrid City Council had considered it to have artistic or cultural value and had estimated the cost of its production at 10,065.15 euros (excluding VAT).
The magistrates considered that from the evidence gathered, it is clear that the accused purchased on March 7, 2021 the objects that were used the following day to cover the faces of the women who had been reproduced on the fresco of the sports center, “an action “aimed at demeaning and discrediting the values and principles represented by the fresco.”
“Essentially, the rejection of gender violence, inherent in the dignity of people for reasons of sex, sexual orientation or identity that the crime in question contemplates, a dignity that has been injured,” the resolution states.
“Covering the faces of women who represent the rejection of gender violence is an unequivocal demonstration of the most absolute contempt for their figure and the values and principles they represent, and committing these acts on a date as important as International Women’s Day” intensifies the harmful scope of the criminal act.
