The Hate Crimes Service of the Barcelona Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, which is coordinated by prosecutor Miguel Ángel Aguilar, is asking for three years in prison and a fine of 3,600 euros to right wing extremist for a crime against the exercise of Fundamental Rights and Public Freedoms in its variant of antisemitism.
The defendant took part in last year’s demonstration for the 12th October in Barcelona called by groups and political formations of extreme right-wing ideology, which every year starts in Plaça Espanya and ends in Plaça Sant Jordi on Montjuic mountain.
According to the indictment, during the demonstration, the defendant, “motivated by his animosity towards Jews and their nation Israel, began to repeatedly and loudly utter antisemitic chants that clearly and distinctly instigated feelings of violence among the attendees, hatred or hostility against the Jewish community with expressions such as “death to Jews, “kill Jews” and “death to Israel”, with an unspecified number of attendees who were younger than the defendant and who could not be identified by the police”.
The accused stopped his chanting after being intercepted by Mossos d’Esquadra officers present at the demonstration, who were assisted by the organisers’ security officer.
However, the prosecutor considers that he committed this offence by urging others to promote hatred against members of the Jewish community.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office recalls that in the march called by these extreme right-wing groups in Barcelona on Columbus Day, the “participants take advantage of the occasion to make proclamations in favour of the unity of Spain and to point out the alleged “enemies” of this unity.
Also recurrent are calls for “sacrifice”, to use all necessary means in defence of the “Spanish nation” or complaints about suffering “persecution” by the “system”.
Over the years, it has become common for participants to flaunt symbols linked to far-right groups and, in particular, to organisations directly linked to the Franco regime”.
After indicating that the “significant” deployment of the Mossos has prevented violent incidents in recent years, the prosecutor said that sometimes there are occasional clashes before or after an “anti-fascist” counter-demonstration is called nearby.
On 12 October, National Democracy called for some 200 people under the slogan “Catalonia is Spain” and chanted chants with expressions such as “out reds”, “Hitler”, “long live Francisco Franco”, “Franco, Franco”, “no, no MENAS no, Menas no”, in reference to unaccompanied foreign minors, or “where are the separatists”, referring to “people of pro-independence ideology to whom they profess a deep animosity”, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
