A Portuguese man has been sentenced to 20 days of house arrest in Lugo, Spain, for sending messages to his ex-partner calling her, among other insults, “fat,” “pot-bellied,” and “witch.”
On March 1, 2022, the victim filed a complaint against her ex-partner for domestic violence, mistreatment, and threats. However, the Criminal Court No. 2 of Lugo did not find these “facts to be proven.”
Nonetheless, the judge confirmed that on October 1, 2020, the man sent multiple messages to the complainant via WhatsApp, using terms such as “witch, fat, psychopath, pot-bellied, and crazy.” Consequently, he was sentenced to 20 days of house arrest or 20 days of community service, along with a “five-month restraining order, prohibiting him from approaching or communicating with the complainant by any means.”
The Portuguese man’s lawyer appealed the sentence to the Provincial Court of Lugo, arguing that the initial judge “made an error” in evaluating the evidence, as it was not proven that the mobile phone from which the messages were sent belonged to the accused.
Moreover, the Defense pointed out that as the messages were translated from Portuguese to Spanish, they could contain errors.
The Provincial Court of Lugo informed the accused that the content of the WhatsApp messages was verified by the prosecutor and contained expressions “whose meaning is unequivocal,” leaving no room for “interpretations derived from the context or the fact that the accused used the Portuguese language,” as the expressions were “objectively vexatious and injurious.”
Based on these arguments, the Lugo court confirmed today, Friday, November 17, the sentence imposed by the Criminal Court No. 2 of Lugo.
