The justice system withdraws the fine for Orriols for linking Islam with "gang rapes"

BarcelonaThe courts have ruled in favor of Sílvia Orriols. The Girona courts have upheld the appeal by the leader of Aliança Catalana against the 10,001-euro fine imposed by the Generalitat for linking Islam to "gang rapes, genital mutilation, and forced marriages," and have annulled the financial sanction. "We celebrate this enormously. [...] Sílvia has won," stated Jordi Coma, a member of the party's legal secretariat, in statements collected by the ACN during the party's II Municipalist Convention of the far-right party in Ripoll.

The Department of Equality and Feminism, led by former republican minister Tània Verge, sanctioned Orriols in 2022 with a 10,001-euro fine forstatements made on the defunct 8TV in which she speculated about what the massive arrival of Muslims would entail. "In an Islamic Catalonia, there would be gang rapes, genital mutilation, and forced marriages," she said. The leader of Aliança Catalana did not accept the sanction and, after exhausting all administrative channels, took the case to the Contentious-Administrative Court number 1 of the Palace of Justice in Girona, which has ruled in favor of the mayor of Ripoll.

The ruling, signed by magistrate María del Pilar García, upholds the appeal and annuls the fine because it concludes that the discrimination alleged by the Generalitat in the statements made by Orriols could not be proven. In this sense, it notes that the program where Orriols made the statements was not an "interview, speech, or open demonstration" by the Aliança leader but rather "a program where different positions were being counterbalanced."

At the oral hearing, Orriols ratified the words for which the Generalitat fined her. "I reaffirm my statements. I consider that they align with freedom of expression and the right to political representation," she said. And, upon leaving, in front of her followers she reiterated: "It is what we believe, reality manifests it as such, and we must not be ashamed to say what we think against these regimes. Those who do not know how to win in the parliamentary arc try to win it in the courts."