Comments on Facebook that attack a person’s religion, race, gender or political ideology can put someone in the dock. A clear example is the one that will judge the Provincial Court of Cordoba this month in which the Prosecutor’s Office accuses a user of this social network of hate crime for having written on Facebook “any person of a left-wing or socialist political nature must be shot with a firearm on the Baena promenade”. This is precisely where hundreds of people were shot at the beginning of the civil war.
The prosecution document states that the events date back to 2021, while in Facebook group which was private but had 12,400 members, one of the users opened a thread about the recent beatification of some religious martyrs from the province of Cordoba.
The accused, according to the public accusation, in order to reach the greatest number, wrote this expression that, in the opinion of the prosecution, incites hatred. In fact, these expressions have been condemned even by the former mayor of Baena, Maria Jesus SerranoThe PSOE Secretary General described as “inadmissible” these types of messages that “encourage hatred against people of a certain ideology” and that “in this case it is against progressive people but we would think the same thing if the attack was against another ideology.”
Immediately after this message, other users commented reprimand such statements which had an impact on social networks and in local and provincial media.
The prosecution is seeking a prison sentence of two years and nine months as well as a fine of 3,000 euros, as well as a specific ban on profession or educational employment in the field of education, sports and leisure for a period of seven years and six months. Likewise, the public prosecutor ordered the blocking of the accused’s access to the aforementioned social network.
For his part, the author of the comments after the controversy – now being prosecuted – even asked publicly forgive to all those who felt offended.
