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One year in jail for Def Con Dos singer for "insulting victims" in six tweets
  • The Supreme Court has condemned Cesar Strawberry for “nurturing hate speech and legitimizing terrorism” on Twitter. The ruling comes after the prosecutor appealed the National Hearing’s acquittal ruling.
ARGIA @argia 2017ko urtarrilaren 19a
(Argazkia: El Diario.es / A. Navarro)

Strawberry has been sentenced to one year in prison in a ruling issued on Thursday by the Spanish Supreme Court. The singer of the popular music group Def Con Dos was prosecuted by the National Audience for several tweets.

Among other things, the singer who joked on the social network about the death of Carrero Blanco, one of the main leaders of the Franco dictatorship, wrote ironic and critical messages that mentioned Ortega Lara, kidnapped by ETA, Eduarno Madina or Juan Carlos Borbon, king of Spain. The singer himself explained in court that he wrote these messages “to make us think beyond political dogmas.”

In May 2015, Strawberry was arrested by the Civil Guard, along with several others, during another phase of Operation Spider. He was acquitted by the National Hearing in July last year. The Supreme Court has been critical of this ruling: "Freedom of expression cannot be a refuge for expressions that preserve the humiliation and contempt of the victims of terrorism."

In any case, one of the jurors has cast a particular vote against, explaining that these tweets are part of "the subculture of certain social groups made up of young people abused by the crisis" and are a way to "respond" to their situation.

For his part, Eduardo Madina, deputy of the Spanish Congress, writes the tweet confirming that he has not felt offended and expresses his solidarity with the singer:

The defense believes that he will not have to go to jail because it is a sentence of less than two years and has no criminal record.