Álvarez de Toledo wins the trial against the father of Pablo Iglesias: there is "undoubted factual basis" when he called him a "terrorist"

The Court of First Instance number 3 of Zamora has ruled in favor of Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo and has dismissed the lawsuit that the father of Pablo Iglesias had filed against her for attacking his honor when she referred to him as a "terrorist".

The sentence considers that there is an "undoubted factual basis" in the statement made by the PP deputy due to the public comments that the former leader of Podemos had made in interviews or social networks in which he linked

with the

.

The ruling, signed by Judge

, makes the right to freedom of expression prevail and classifies as "unaccredited" an "illegitimate interference" in the right to honor "and less the existence of compensable moral damage."

The Prosecutor's Office had also agreed with Álvarez de Toledo asking for the dismissal of the claim, while Francisco Javier Iglesias claimed 18,000 euros.

The case dates back to 2020, when Álvarez de Toledo was spokesman for the PP in Congress and Pablo Iglesias second vice president of the Government.

In an interview on

, the popular deputy said that Iglesias was "the son of a terrorist" for having been linked to the Anti-Fascist and Patriotic Revolutionary Front (FRAP), an extreme left group that perpetrated violent actions in the last years of Francoism, " regardless of the activity he carried out in the terrorist organization".

The ruling now states that "the expressions, opinions or value judgments issued had an undoubted general interest when referring to the historical and political past of our country, and an undoubted factual basis in the terms referred to, and the defendant did not use unjustified or unnecessary expressions. to convey the critical purpose, even when it may annoy, disturb or upset the person against whom it is directed".

It goes on to stress that "the right to freedom of expression must prevail over the right to honor because it is essential as a guarantee for the formation of a free public opinion, indispensable for the political pluralism that the democratic principle demands."

Álvarez de Toledo presented as evidence to support his statement the articles or tweets in which Pablo Iglesias attributed his father to being a "frapero".

"Believe me if I tell you that being the son of a FRAP militant and having been a militant where I was a militant, it is worth admiring Carrillo," said the then leader of Podemos in an article he wrote in Público in 2012. "I leave you a song that My father used to sing to me as a child," he also published in a tweet in 2013.

The sentence includes an interview with the father of Iglesias where he says: "I belonged to the committee for the creation of the FRAP, but I left due to discrepancies" in 1974, "and it was in 1975 when the FRAP took the step of entering the fight armed. For me it was a mistake."

However, the ruling recalls that in May 1973 the FRAP claimed responsibility for the murders of two policemen, whose names appear as victims of terrorism as shown on the website of the Ministry of the Interior.

Focusing on the exact words of Álvarez de Toledo in the interview that earned him the claim, the sentence points out that the PP deputy does not affirm that Francisco Javier Iglesias had actively participated in the murders, nor in violent acts "but that the defendant He was part of the Profrap Committee that claimed responsibility for such actions, having participated in the dissemination or delivery of the pamphlets of the demonstration on May 1, having been arrested for it".

It is pointed out that Álvarez de Toledo had limited himself to concluding "as a syllogism that the FRAP was a terrorist organization because the victims of said formation were considered and classified by the Government as terrorist victims, so if the defendant, father of Don Pablo Iglesias belonged to Frap, or contributed to its formation as part of the Fro Frap committee, the defendant concluded, Mr. Pablo Iglesias is the son of a terrorist."

The sentence can be appealed before the Provincial Court of Zamora.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Pablo Iglesias

• Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo

• Can