The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unanimously rejected this Thursday the appeal of the former president of the Generalitat Artur Mas against the newspaper El Mundo for alleged violation of his right to honor as a result of the information that accused him of charging commissions and depositing them in accounts in Switzerland.
As reported this Thursday by the body based in Strasbourg, the magistrates have inadmissible the brief after considering that Mas did not exhaust the legal channels in the Spanish courts.
The case dates back to November 2012, when El Mundo published a series of articles that Mas said had damaged his reputation. Said publication took place within the framework of the electoral campaign for the presidency of the Generalitat.
Spain argued before the ECHR that the former president could have filed a legal action in the Spanish courts to request a correction to the newspaper or could have initiated a special procedure to protect his right to honor and obtain compensation for the alleged damage.
Now, the court has explained that since Mas chose to use "only" the criminal law route, he deprived himself of the possibility of obtaining compensation for the alleged violation of his rights through civil proceedings.
The magistrates have stressed that, with this action, Mas limited the scope of the Spanish courts. Thus, they have concluded that the former president of the Government "could not demonstrate" that Spain offered him insufficient protection and that his rights were violated.
