The Court of Instruction number 4 of Mataró (Barcelona) has filed the lawsuit filed by the ultra association Hazte Oír against the satirical magazine Mongoliathe last one that remained open of the four that different conservative organizations presented on the cover of the publication in its last issue of 2022.: “The son of God is born! Equal to the father!”. Hazte Oír’s complaint argued that the publication offended “religious feelings.”
The court order considers that the reported fact is “a clear res judicata” and that, therefore, a dismissal is possible. Despite the decision, a decision that the magazine’s editor, Editorial Mong, and its editors have also opposed. They defend that there is no criminal relevance by limiting itself to the “” and that the reported cover “even though irreverent, intends a critical and humorous purpose, not an insulting one.”
In its first appeal, Hazte Oír already managed to get two of the three editors of the publication, which is considered “anticlerical in orientation,” to declare themselves under investigation last summer for the same cause. The third, Darío Adanti, had to testify in Madrid, but before that happens the Mataró court has decided. Its decision, specified in an order, dated October 2, indicates that if the instruction was still alive it was “due to the approval of an appeal from the Second Section of the Provincial Court.”
The Court considered that those responsible for Mongolia They had to give statements as investigated to clarify whether or not the motive for the publication was to offend the Catholic community. In the complaint, Hazte Oír argued that the desire to ridicule was “sufficiently proven” and that using a “shit with a smile to replace the baby Jesus in a Christmas nativity scene complies with the criminal offense.” That opinion, however, has not been considered by the head of the Mataró court or by the Prosecutor’s Office, who denied the religious offense and supported freedom of expression.
Added to Hazte Oír’s complaint are those presented by Clean Hands, Christian Lawyers and the Carlist Traditionalist Communion. These last three, once the case was dismissed, did not opt for the appeal, which means that the judicial closure order became a final sentence. The complaints, which spoke of “vexation and mockery of God,” came after Vox leader Jorge Buxadé called to denounce Mongolia.
The Court of Instruction number 12 of Barcelona indicated in 2023 that on the cover of Mongolia through “derision”, understood as “tenacious mockery that is made with the purpose of insulting the feelings of the members of the Christian religious confession.” Its headline defended the satirical cover’s claim to “criticize, deny or highlight the irrationality intrinsic to what are dogmas of faith, with greater or lesser success and harsh terms.”
Faced with what it considers a campaign against it, in January of this year Mongolia announced a crowdfunding campaign and a lawsuit causes a problem for the publishing company, which must dedicate time and money to defending its interests in court.
