Clean Hands denounces Alberto Garzón before the Supreme Court for calling Juan Carlos I an "accredited criminal" and a "thief"

He alleges that "freedom of expression cannot mean a letter of marque"

MADRID, 24 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Clean Hands union has filed a complaint with the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court against the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, after he called Juan Carlos I a "thief" and "accredited criminal" last Saturday.

In the letter, to which Europa Press has had access, the general secretary of the organization, Miguel Bernad, assures that "the disqualifying actions" of the minister "cannot fit in with the broad right of citizens to freedom of expression." In his opinion, his words constitute a crime of libel against the crown.

And this is so insofar as, he adds, "freedom of expression cannot suppose a letter of marque so that based on it the dignity of people is seriously offended" and, in this case, of the king emeritus.

According to Clean Hands, there is an "abyss" between acknowledging that "the behavior of the king emeritus" has been "ethically reprehensible" and calling him a "credited thief and criminal." But, in addition, he adds that there is a "plus of punishment, since the demonstrations" of Garzón "were widely broadcast on the news."

In its brief, the union cites jurisprudence and refers to several sentences for expressions addressed to the King in pejorative terms to request the Second Chamber of the TS to proceed with the opening of the corresponding criminal information proceedings.

The Minister of Consumption and federal coordinator of the United Left expressed himself in the aforementioned terms to the emeritus when asked at an act in Mieres about whether the presence of the emeritus king in Spain had generated some kind of problem with his colleagues from the rest of the Government.

"All of Spain knows that the previous head of state..., still King because it was done that way to protect and shield him, all of Spain knows that person is a thief," he said.

Thus, and despite acknowledging that Juan Carlos I has no open legal cases in Spain, the minister attributed this fact not to his innocence, but to the inviolability he enjoyed in the exercise of his position.