The Court of Instruction number 38 of Madrid has rejected the appeal filed by the former deputy of Podemos Pablo Echenique against the opening of a preliminary procedure in which he appears as accused of an alleged hate crime, and for which he will have to testify next Tuesday in court.
Christian Lawyers denounced Echenique for his publication on May 10 on the social network
“From the point of view of citizen security, it would be more effective to expel priests than to tighten immigration policy,” added the former deputy in his message, with which he was reacting to the words on immigration of the Archbishop of Oviedo, Jesús Sanz, who said: “In this beautiful opening, undesirable people can slip in.”
In a court decision, to which Europa Press has had access, the court rejects Echenique’s claims against the opening of preliminary proceedings, considering that “this is not, as the appellant claims, a debate about abuses within the Catholic Church, but about the question of whether or not” the expressions expressed by the accused present signs that could constitute a hate crime.
For Judge Carlos Valle, the preliminary procedure “aims to clarify the true scope of what has been reported since it seems incontestable that this could at first sight take on the character of a hate crime.”
“The opening of preliminary proceedings does not prejudge anything, but rather represents the start of the investigation of a case whose object may be not only the prosecution of the accused but also, of course, the archiving and classification of the proceedings without further action,” the magistrate specifies.
In the judge’s opinion, the former MP’s appeal “aims to do the opposite of conducting an adequate investigation; that is, to try to protect the expressions denounced within the framework of freedom of expression, while it is true that despite this undeniable freedom of expression, there are violations of criminally protected legal rights, which are committed through the media, social networks, etc.
Sources close to Echenique consulted by Europa Press linked the message he published to a report by the Ombudsman on sexual abuse in the Church and stressed that the words of the Archbishop of Oviedo are “openly xenophobic.”
Following this order, the summons as instructed of the former deputy of the purple formation requested by Judge Hortensia Domingo de la Fuente for next September 17 at 12:00 is maintained after having opened the procedure by emphasizing that the reported events “present characteristics that lead to the possible existence of a criminal offense.
