Comedian 'Quequé' Charged for Urging to 'Fill with Dynamite' the Valley of the Fallen

Comedian and Cadena Ser presenter, Héctor de Miguel, known as Quequé, has been charged with an alleged hate crime by Judge Carlos del Valle for joking on the radio show 'Hora Veintipico' about 'filling with dynamite' the Valley of the Fallen to use the remains of the cross to stone paedophile priests. These remarks were taken to court by Christian Lawyers, and Quequé already testified on January 23, where he stated it was a joke 'exclusively for his audience'.

Now, Judge Carlos Valle considers in his ruling that these expressions cannot be protected under freedom of expression and are not 'an example of sarcastic humour' but a potential hate crime against Catholics broadcasted on a program with 'thousands of listeners'.

However, after learning that a lawsuit had been filed for the words used during the monologue he performed in a special edition of 'Hora Veintipico' in June last year, Quequé urged his audience to call the lawyers' organisation to harass its president, Polonia Castellanos. He will also have to testify on May 9 in a Valladolid court for an alleged harassment offence.

Specifically, the investigated events date back to the monologue he delivered at the beginning of a special program called 'Hora Festipico'. 'All these people here have a wish, which is to fill the cross of the Valley of the Fallen with dynamite and blow it up. If it can be on a Sunday, even better, so more people can attend,' he stated. He added shortly after that the next step was to take those 'pieces' and throw the stones 'at priests who have molested a child, that is, all of them', alluding to the ultra-Catholic practice of harassing women who go to clinics to have abortions.

The judge clarifies that 'these expressions cannot be understood to be protected by the fundamental right to freedom of expression, as they entail a gratuitous, false, and directly offensive imputation that, carried out with the publicity inherent to the program in which it is aired, can be suitable to generate, even indirectly, feelings of hatred or hostility against the specific group they refer to, for reasons related to their religion or beliefs.'