Madrid court acquits neo-Nazis of hate crime for 2016 mosque protest

The Provincial Court of Madrid has acquitted the leader of the neo-Nazi group Hogar Social Madrid, Melisa Domínguez, from charges of a hate crime that she was alleged to have committed by holding an Islamophobic protest outside a mosque in 2016. 

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years in prison for Domínguez after she, and members of her organisation, assembled outside a mosque near the M-30 highway in Madrid following the jihadist attacks on Brussels airport. She held a sign that said “Today Brussels? Tomorrow Madrid?”, whilst she and her accomplices also set off fireworks and shouted insults at the Muslims who were inside the religious centre. 

However, the court has ruled that those implicated are innocent and that they had only attended the location “to protest against radical Islam related to the referenced attacks”. In a statement covered by El Diario, the court added that there was no proof that the far-right group had “provoked comments in social networks that were of Islamophobic character”. 

In terms of the comments made online during the promotion of information about the protest, and for which the charge of a “hate crime” was based, the judge ruled that there were not only criticisms of Islam “but also Catholicism, and in opposition to communism and fascism”. Finally, they also ruled that there was no crime relating to public disorder, stating that “placing a placard did not cause disruption to pedestrian walkways or the circulation of traffic on the M-30”.

Hoy ha sido absuelta de delito de odio Melisa Domínguez, la líder neonazi de Hogar Social Madrid, acusada de lanzar bengalas contra una mezquita. Es protegida por policías y jueces ultraderechistas. Así campa a sus anchas el fascismo en España. pic.twitter.com/xgMT8jLZhD

— Fonsi Loaiza (@FonsiLoaiza) December 14, 2022

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