The Provincial Court of Tarragona has confirmed the dismissal of the complaint filed against a man for a video disseminated on social media about the presence of people with headscarves, in allusion to the hijab, recorded in a neighborhood of Tarragona.
The complaint came from the Watani Muslim Association for a recording made in a public place, apparently in Sant Salvador. In that video, the accused literally said that that was not Morocco, but the Sant Salvador neighborhood of Tarragona, and added that only headscarves and more headscarves were passing by, to conclude that the trace of Catalan identity had been lost in Tarragona and in Catalonia as a whole.
The Court rules out the hate crime
The Fourth Section of the Provincial Court of Tarragona has reviewed the case after the appeal filed by the Prosecutor's Office against the provisional dismissal agreed by the Court of Instruction number 4 of Tarragona in an order dated June 10 of last year.
The Public Prosecutor's Office considered that dismissal premature, understanding that no investigative proceedings had been carried out regarding the reported facts. Furthermore, it maintained that there were indications of an alleged hate crime, by interpreting that the message disseminated on social media constituted an offense to religious diversity and to Muslim identity.
Facing that thesis, the Court focuses the analysis on whether the conduct and expressions disseminated by the user on the social network really fell within the scope of criminal protection of the hate crime. The court's answer has been negative.
"We do not see in them a discourse aimed at inciting hatred, harassment, and violence" - magistrates of the Provincial Court of Tarragona
Firm resolution on the file
In their appeal order, the magistrates maintain that they also do not appreciate an intention to undermine the participatory rights of the group to which the expressions referred, in this case women with headscarves that would indicate their belonging to the Muslim religion.
The resolution adds that those manifestations do not reach the harmfulness required by the criminal offense, understood as an expressive conduct capable of generating a real and significant risk for the foundations of peaceful coexistence.
With that reasoning, the Court upholds the decision adopted in the first instance by the court of Tarragona and leaves in force the provisional dismissal of the case opened for the dissemination of that video on social media.