Spanish Court Gives Free Speech A Chance For Embattled Priest

The Provincial Court of Malaga in Spain acquitted priests Custodio Ballester and Jesús Calvo on October 17, who were accused of inciting hatred when they criticized Islamic extremism in interviews and articles published by a digital media outlet. The director of the latter,  Armando Robles, was also exonerated.

The prosecutor had asserted that the priests insulted Islam and the Muslim community with their statements, and asked for a sentence of three years in prison and substantial fines for each. The prosecutor also asked for four years in prison for Robles. However, all three have now been acquitted.

While the court recognized that the defendants did not seek to evade responsibility for their statements, but focused on whether the fact that they made the statements were criminal and therefore legally admissible as hate crime. Regarding statements made by Fr. Custodio Ballester, the court regarded them as "unfortunate, Manichean, linked to intransigent religious or ideological stereotypes, or resorting to unfair and arbitrary generalizations, they cannot, for that reason, be considered to constitute the crime of incitement to hatred."
 

The judges found that his statements were "unfortunate, extreme, and radical, but that this does not make them a manifestation of the crime of incitement to hatred."

Regarding the statements of the other priest, Jesús Calvo, they consider them, at least in large part, to be "delusional," not as a term, but rather as a reality "verifiable as a product of the delusional ideas and psychological ailments suffered by the accused.
 

"Regarding the media outlet's director, the Court does consider that his conduct is closer to and contiguous with the crime of incitement to hatred and goes beyond the broad scope of the right to freedom of expression. In fact, after their review, the judges find it proven that there is a repetition of articles, messages, interviews, and news stories "with an excessive fixation on Islam, Islamism, migration, and with a permanent and continuous criticism of such beliefs."

"They are clearly offensive, but that does not constitute the crime of incitement to hatred," according to the Court, which emphasizes that it is "evident" that the content they contain is not "aimed at promoting harmony and coexistence, but neither is their intention to promote or incite hatred proven with the necessary forcefulness required by criminal law."

With these publications, the judges believe that Robles "often resorts to offense and insult," but they do not find that his actions are clearly aimed at provoking hostile or discriminatory acts.

Ballester's legal woes began in 2017 after his interview with Robles. A group of Spanish Muslims accused him of Islamophobia and denounced him to local authorities, thus triggering the criminal proceedings for his use of speech.