The Hearing of Gipuzkoa mitigates the punishment of former Royal President Iñaki Badiola

The Third Section of the Gipuzkoa High Court has confirmed that former Royal President Iñaki Badiola used two Twitter accounts to utter slander and insults against several people, messages that Badiola anonymously disseminated between 2017 and 2018 against judges, magistrates, lawyers, journalists and politicians, including then-MP Markel Olano.

However, the court has partially upheld the appeal of the former president's defence and reduced individual sentenceson the grounds that the trial has suffered "undue delays", thus setting the new sentences in the range between four and a half months' imprisonment and fines of €3,600.

This decision substantially amends the judgement handed down by the Court of Appeal of San Sebastián in April 2023, which initially imposed sentences amounting to 10 years and 8 months in prison , with sentences divided into 8 16 months for continuing offences of slander and serious injury committed by extension, and compensation of up to 36,000 euros.

Origin of the Twitter account

According to the judgement, it is considered proven that the White Blue businessman, who was president of the club between January and December 2008, created the clandestine@GipuzkoaConfidencial account, a profile through which he confused several people in different plots with false and serious information, without any basis, so the Court rejected the arguments put forward by the defence defending freedom of expression.

Partial acquittals and changes in sentence

In addition to the restriction imposed by the undue delay of the proceedings, the Court has ordered the acquittal of the publishing company and suspended the charge of a continuing offence of serious injury to the person responsible forEl Diario Vasco  . The judges have explained that "a legal person may not be the victim or passive subject of this offence", since the law reserves it only for natural persons, although it has left the commercial company open.

Similarly, with regard to the offence against moral integrity, he has ordered acquittal in several cases. Although the Chamber has upheld this accusation for the majority of those affected, it has acquitted Badiola of three victims on the grounds that no moral influence was established or that there was no criminal continuity required by case law.

Since the initial sentences were structured into 16 months of individual sentences, the former President of the Royal Society had already avoided entering prison, a situation that has now become fully consolidated after the new sentences have remained within the minimum legal limits, although this ruling of the Gipuzkoa High Court is not final since the parties can appeal in cassation to the Supreme Court.