About thirty civic and social entities have gathered this Wednesday in front of the Girona Palace of Justice to file a complaint with the Provincial Prosecutor's Office for Hate Crimes. The objective is to investigate the xenophobic speeches made on social networks by two local influencers.
The legal action responds to a video published on the Instagram account @dave.explora, recorded in the Plaza de la Independencia. In the images, the person responsible for the profile @girona_perdida stated that when he gets bored he goes hunting Moors because whoever commits a crime is a Moor. The publication has been removed from the platform.
Entities accuse of aggravating the crime with viralization
The applicant groups are requesting the opening of proceedings against both content creators for a crime punishable by sentences of up to four years in prison. Ouheir Daraaoui, spokesperson for the entities present at the rally, has underlined the seriousness of the expressions used.
"The expression 'Moors' totally denigrates the Arab community" - Ouheir Daraaoui, spokesperson for the reporting entities
Daraaoui has insisted that a causal relationship cannot be established between the immigrant population and crime. Furthermore, he has pointed out that crime is also hate speech and that when there are many views, the hate crime is aggravated. The organizations have announced that they will present themselves as popular prosecution if the prosecution decides to open an investigation.
Denounce the impunity of fascist attacks
Cristina Arana, another of the spokespersons, has warned of the danger of these types of messages going unpunished in the digital environment. For Arana, freedom of expression is not used to say anything and she has connected these events with previous physical aggressions.
The spokesperson recalled the glue sticker attacks suffered in November and April against the Ateneo 24 de Junio and the Ateneo Popular Salvadora Catà. She links these actions to fascist and far-right movements.
"It cannot be that fascism continues to roam without any limits" - Cristina Arana, spokesperson for the entities
Both the Girona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya have filed their own complaints against the authors of the content. The municipal and regional legal services thus join the institutional pressure on those responsible for the profiles.
The person responsible for the @girona_perdida account has declared to Diari de Girona that the majority of the delinquents are Moors. He added that if they were Catalans or Russians, he would say so too. The influencer maintains that he is reporting from freedom of opinion.
Faced with the complaint filed by the entities and institutions, the author of the video has assured that he will take appropriate action against those who have filed the lawsuit.