A court in Spain has acquitted two Catholic priests and a journalist of “hate speech” charges for publicly criticizing Islam, ending an eight-year legal battle.
The Provincial Court of Málaga on Oct. 1 found the Rev. Custodio Ballester of Barcelona was guilty of making “Islamophobic” comments in a talk show and in writing, but the court later made public that the comments did not constitute hate speech and dismissed all such charges against him, the Rev. Jesús Calvo and journalist Armando Robles.
Ballester made the comments during a 2017 online interview on the talk show “La Ratonera” with Calvo and Robles. Ballester also criticized Islam in a 2016 article he wrote entitled, “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam.”
During the online talk show, Ballester reiterated his views from the 2016 article. The priest wrote at the time, “Radical Islam wants to destroy Christian civilization and raze the West to the ground.” His writing responded to a pastoral letter, “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam,” which Cardinal Juan José Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, wrote supporting Christian-Muslim dialogue.
“This renewed revival of Christian-Muslim dialogue, paralyzed by the alleged ‘imprudence’ of the beloved Benedict XVI, is far from a reality,” Ballester wrote in response. “Islam does not allow for dialogue. You either believe or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another.”
The priest denounced Muslim persecution of Christians in countries like Nigeria, Syria and Bangladesh.
Ballester told Fox News Digital he felt a moral obligation to speak the truth.
“One cannot speak of dialogue when, in Islamic countries, Christians are persecuted, murdered, or forced to pay the jizya [tax on non-Muslims] to survive,” Ballester told Fox News Digital. “Cardinal Omella spoke about the dialogue, but I responded from the reality our persecuted brothers live.”
The Association of Muslims Against Islamophobia had filed a complaint against Ballester, Calvo and Robles after the broadcast. This led prosecutors to seek three-year jail terms for both priests and a four-year jail term for Robles, according to an Oct. 22 report by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). Prosecutors also wanted the court to levy fines and ban both priests from teaching.
The Spanish Penal Code’s Article 510 criminalizes public expressions that incite hatred, hostility, discrimination or violence against groups based on religion, race and other categories. The law, which the government introduced in 1995 and expanded in 2015 to include online offenses, punishes those who publicly encourage or promote hatred. Penalties range from one to four years in prison, and the prosecutor in Ballester’s case had requested a three-year term.
Europa Press reported that the Málaga court ruled that the “objective and/or subjective elements required for the hate-speech offense are lacking.”
“No matter how despicable or perverse the message may be, or even if the statements may be clearly offensive or unfortunate, they do not in themselves constitute a punishable offence,” stated the court, according to the Europa Press.
Responding to the acquittal, Ballester thanked God and Christians for supporting him both in prayer and in person at the court hearing, the BGEA reported.
Veteran evangelist Franklin Graham celebrated the ruling on social media channel X.
“It’s unbelievable that this Catholic priest from Spain had to go to trial to defend his right to speak the truth about radical Islam,” wrote Graham. “I appreciate the fact that Father Custodio Ballester wouldn’t back down, even in the face of a jail term. He was also threatened with a 10-year ban from preaching … I’m not a Catholic, but I’ll be preaching in Spain next year and I hope to have a chance to meet him!”
Ballester said he was “not surprised” about the initial complaint, which led to the charge in court.
“In this Spain, corrupted by woke culture, telling the truth about radical Islam is considered a crime,” said Ballester. “But as a priest, my duty is to Christ and to truth, not to the ideological consensus imposed by the government.”
Crime is no longer prosecuted but “thought is,” he said.
“Your own words are criminalized, and you are held responsible for what someone else might do after hearing you. And if that thought, that word, is Christian, traditional or critical of Islam, it becomes a hate crime,” Ballester said. “It is ideological persecution disguised as justice. Hate crime law is one-directional. Offenses against Christian sentiments are labeled freedom of expression. Criticism of Islam is labeled hate crime.”
Ballester, a former special forces soldier, previously told Catholic News Service (CNA) that his statements never contained discriminatory or hateful language. He told journalists and supporters outside the court after the initial guilty verdict that he felt calm.
Nearly 30,000 people signed a protest petition by Christian advocacy group Abogados Cristianos (Christian Attorneys). The lawyers’ group called the court verdict a “double standard of a law that is useless for all of us who receive attacks and humiliations because of our Christian faith.”
“They will never censor the criticism, disrespect or continuous offenses that broadcast from the television sets towards Catholics,” Abogados Cristianos said in an online explanation of the petition for Hate Crimes prosecutor Miguel Ángel Aguilar to wisthdraw the accusation against the priest. “However, no one can doubt the behavior of certain groups that they are interested in protecting and glorifying. If we tolerate that this injustice is committed with Father Custos [Custodio], we will be setting a fatal precedent.”
The legal battle, however, has likely not ended, Ballester said, according to Fox News.
“My sentence has greatly angered the prosecutor’s office because it halts all proceedings against freedom of expression,” Ballester reportedly said. “They are going to appeal to the higher courts. The heads of the hate prosecutor’s office…do not like defeat. We will continue to fight for freedom.”
