The Criminal Court number 4 of Castellón has sentenced a man to eight months in prison for the crime of unconditional threats after hanging a doll from a tree to which he added a photocopy with the face of the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, and to which he placed several red spots on his front part simulating shots.
The sentence contemplates the mitigating circumstance of delay and the aggravating circumstance of discrimination, and requires the defendant to pay compensation of 500 euros in favor of the victim for moral damages. However, the court acquitted the defendant of the hate crime of which the private prosecution accused him for lack of prosecution evidence. The sentence can be appealed before the Provincial Court.
The sentence indicates that it is proven that the defendant manipulated a white polypropylene jumpsuit, with long sleeves and legs and a hood-type hat, on an unspecified day in early March 2020, in which he introduced balls of crumpled paper, using on it a spray of red paint, in order to place six red spots on its front part, simulating shots, on the extremities, head and trunk.
In addition, the defendant used other paint sprays, one black to write BAF – an acronym for Brigades Antifeixistes de Castelló – on the front of the right leg, and another green to write the letters Vox along the zipper. On the part of the hat, he attached a DIN A4 size color photocopy with the face of Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, with transparent packing tape, to which he placed a stain of red paint at the height of the forehead.
The defendant tied a rope to the feet of that doll, at an unspecified time, but during the early morning of March 8, 2020, and hung it from the branch of a tree located in Plaza María Agustina de Castelló.
At around 5:30 a.m. that day, a group of members and supporters of the Vox party from the Castellón area met in the aforementioned square to board a bus to the Palacio de Vistalegre, where a party event was scheduled to take place in the person involved, among others, Santiago Abascal, who looked at the doll and notified the Police, for which some agents came who took it down from the tree and took it to the Castellón Provincial Police Station.
The doll was examined by agents of the Scientific Police, who found the accused’s fingerprints on the adhesive tape, which allowed his identification.
According to the sentence, the defendant was motivated by ideological reasons when making the doll and placing it on the tree, intending to threaten the peace of mind of Santiago Abascal and of the people affiliated and sympathetic to the party he leads, Vox. Santiago Abascal found out about the existence of the doll through social networks, suffering the “logical fear”, for which he claims.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project