Seven convicted in Melilla for hate speech against migrant minors

Melilla: 2 years and 6 months in prison for hate messages

The Malaga Provincial Court has handed down, according to the ruling, the longest prison sentence imposed in Spain to date for a hate crime. Seven residents of Melilla, four men and three women, have been convicted for messages they posted against unaccompanied foreign minors. Five have received two years, six months, and one day in prison; the other two, one year. And that's not all: there's a fine, disqualification, and an order to delete all their writings.

The sentence is signed by the seventh section of the Malaga Provincial Court, with jurisdiction over Melilla. The case dates back to 2017, when the PRODEIN Association of Melilla, chaired by José Palazón and dedicated to defending migrant children, reported a cascade of posts appearing on Facebook to the Public Prosecutor's Office. The Jesuit Migrant Service joined as a popular prosecution.

What the sentence condemns and whom

The complainants initially lost. The Incivil Court number 1 of Melilla acquitted the accused. The Prosecutor and the involved organizations appealed, and that appeal has turned the tables. The resolution corrects the lower court and considers it proven that the messages fit the definition of a hate crime.

The distribution of sentences is unequal. The five main defendants also face nine months of fines at a rate of six euros per day and a disqualification of five and a half years from any educational, teaching, or leisure profession. The other two will serve one year in prison, six months of daily fines at six euros, and four years of disqualification. In all cases, the withdrawal of the right to stand for election and the obligation to remove the comments are added.

A Facebook group with over 14,000 members

The resolution, of 48 pages, places the origin of the case in a digital community called Opinión popular de Melilla (Melilla Public Opinion), which at the time grouped more than 14,000 people. The convicted individuals operated within that space and other similar groups. The comments were not mere barroom venting: the sentence describes calls to organize neighborhood patrols, take justice into their own hands, and clean the streets, as well as direct threats of running people over or assaulting minors.

The court qualifies these messages as incitement to hatred, contempt, and discrimination against a group defined by their origin and family situation, emphasizing that they reached a multitude of people due to the inherent publicity of social networks. The legal key lies there: it is not opinion that is judged, but the massive dissemination of an invitation to violence.

The highest sentence for hate crime, according to the ruling

The complainants themselves present the ruling as a warning to navigators for anyone who continues to write the same. According to the ruling, it is the longest prison sentence imposed in Spain to date for this reason. This figure, added to the educational disqualification, serves as a warning: the cost of a post is no longer measured solely in fruta.

There is a relevant detail in the reasoning: the court insists that the target is a vulnerable group, minors who arrive alone and in irregular situations, protected by institutions. This weighs heavily when increasing the penalty.

Hate crime or opinion crime: the crux of the debate

This is where the public divides. One current holds that the conviction is pure incitement to violence and was inevitable. Another, much more critical, reads it as a punishment for expression and warns of a chilling effect: the antiestéticar of writing. Some go further and frame it within a restrictive trend of recent years, recalling that incivil statutes to prosecute messages have been expanded to cover cases that were once untouched.

The fundamental legal reproach deserves a nuance that almost no one makes: the Penal Code requires more than an uncomfortable opinion. It demands glorification or incitement to discrimination and violence. The real discussion, therefore, is where that line is drawn in a Facebook message.

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With the Court setting the bar at two and a half years, any anonymous account now knows where it stands. Whether this deters or merely teaches people to write more carefully is something the next case will decide.