The court of first instance 5 of Girona has acquitted the former head of the Criminal Investigation Division, the mayor Toni Rodríguez, who had been accused of violating the right to honor and the presumption of innocence of Jordi Magentí, charged with the double crime of Susqueda . The reason for the lawsuit was a statement to the media made by the person in charge of the investigation on the day of Magentí's arrest. "We do not have a single doubt of authorship, which is presumed procedurally, yet." For the accused of the double crime of Susqueda, those demonstrations "made him appear guilty when he had not yet been brought to justice, had violated his right to honor, injured his dignity, undermined his fame and attempted against his esteem" and had incited the public to prejudge him. For this reason, he demanded the publication of the sentence in which the existence of the illegitimate interference with honor was admitted in the four main newspapers of Catalonia and compensation of 30,000 euros.
In her resolution, the judge dismissed the claim, understanding that "the information provided by the mayor does not reveal the identity of the detainee or essential data." And she clarifies that she always refers to the arrested “as the alleged perpetrator and reiterates on more than one occasion that the investigation and criminal proceedings are ongoing. "No insulting expressions or those that unnecessarily degrade the detainee are used," she concludes. “The mayor at no time identified the detainee or provided relevant information for his identification. The fact that the identity of the detainee was known by the media at that time is in no way related to the mayor's actions."
Rodríguez's demonstrations also had great public interest, the judge pointed out, because it was a very serious case such as "the murder of two very young people in a natural area where they had gone to spend a few days Rest". The mayor's statements meet the requirements of public relevance, veracity of the facts, and proportionality.
Jordi Magentí was arrested on February 26, 2018 by the Mossos d'Esquadra as the alleged perpetrator of the double murder of the young Marc and Paula in the Susqueda reservoir in August 2017. The judge of Santa Coloma de Farners ordered his imprisonment where he remained until December 28, 2018 when the Girona Court agreed to provisional release without bail. The judge points out that "the indications of criminality that could initially exist against Magentí have been seriously weakened by the course of the investigation, but not that they were non-existent" when Rodríguez made statements to the press.
