The Provincial Court of Madrid rejected the appeal presented by the columnist Guillermo Rocafort against a judgment of the Court of First Instance No. 67 of Madrid which convicted him for illegitimate interference with the right to honor of Ana Pasteuras shown Newtral.
The court convicted Rocafort of disseminating false statements, including that the journalist had a SICAV that it did not respect its tax obligations, declarations without evidence based on “mere speculation, devoid of basis” and “without verifying that they were based on objective and reliable data or sources”.
By judgment of September 13, the Provincial Court of Madrid rejected the appeal against this resolution. Thus, Rocafort’s conviction and payment of procedural costs are confirmed. The sentence stated that Rocafort’s unproven statements were based on “mere speculation, without support” and “not confirming that it was based on objective and reliable data or sources”.
The court convicted Rocafort of disseminating false statements, according to which the journalist owned a SICAV (Variable Capital Investment Company) or that she did not respect her tax obligations. Rocafort published an article entitled “Doctor of Economics, suspects Ferreras and Ana Pastor of deferring the payment of taxes”, assuring that “as an expert in SICAV”, he could affirm that the journalist and her associate corresponded “to the profile of owners of more than one, but of dozens of SICAVs”.
The Court of First Instance in March 2023 found that Rocafort had not maintained “a reasonable attitude in verifying the veracity of the facts he presents in order not to infringe the right of everyone to receive accurate information“. In this same article, the possibility was raised that both were investors in vulture funds or that they had “the money hidden in tax havens, or that it was managed directly by George Soros or perhaps even Blackstone.
Rocafort not only limited himself to giving his opinion on the SICAVs, according to the judgment, but also attempted to attribute ownership of one of them to Pastor “for the time impute non-compliance with your tax and accounting obligationsas a means of hiding their assets.
