The rights to freedom of expression and information prevail over the right to honor and this means that, among other things, it is admissible that apostates of a religious confession can refer to it as a “destructive sect” if they are able to demonstrate the veracity of their beliefs. the accusations made in the media and social networks.
With this argument, Judge Raquel Chacón, of the court of first instance number 6 of Torrejón de Ardoz, has dismissed the lawsuit for violation of honor that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had filed against a group of disowned or renegade people who had joined together in the Association. Spanish Association of Victims of Jehovah’s Witnesses (AEVTJ) since February 12, 2020.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses had sued the AEVTJ in the hope that the association would be forced to dissolve or, at the very least, the word victims would be removed from the association’s name and from its website and social networks. It was also demanded that the illegitimate interference with the right to honor cease, the cessation of the dissemination of comments or information in any media, in addition to claiming compensation for damages. Judge Chacón has dismissed all the petitions and has ordered the plaintiffs to pay the costs of the proceedings.
The court ruling, which will be appealed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, may set a precedent regarding information limits when certain practices of religious denominations are denounced. The AEVTJ statutes denounced the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their members for the “systematic violation of Spanish law and human rights,” according to statements by the congregation’s deputy spokesperson, David Báidez, to La Vanguardia last May. , when the trial had already been heard for sentencing. “Due to the shocking and unfounded accusations made by the AEVTJ, such as that the denomination violates the law and commits or covers up crimes, we feel obliged to take legal measures to protect our good reputation,” Báidez added.
Specifically, the statutes of the AEVTJ, among many things, ensure that Jehovah’s Witnesses practice sectarianism and psychological control, hide episodes of sexual abuse and pedophiles, cause human losses by denying blood transfusions, discriminate against women and hide cases of gender violence and abusers, in addition to protecting other discriminations such as those practiced due to the sexual tendency of their followers.
The trial was held in January of this year and required 9 oral sessions so that the testimonies of both parties could contribute their versions. Judge Raquel Chacón, in ruling No. 258/2023, collects the testimonies and adds numerous articles published in the media before the creation of the AEVTJ, as well as documents with regulations or dogmas of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Since its founding, the AEVTJ has disseminated behaviors that it considers sectarian among Jehovah’s Witnesses, such as control of the personal lives of its followers and social ostracism, which, according to its complaint, includes the breakdown of relationships between parents and children. and members of the same family once a believer is expelled or abandons said religious confession. He has also accused the Jehovah’s Witnesses of causing psychological consequences in those expelled such as loneliness, depression or, according to them, several cases of suicide.
The ruling of the Torrejón de Ardoz judge reasons that “the recognition of ‘notorious roots’ to the plaintiff confession does not weaken the veracity of the statements of all the former faithful and of the Association that calls it a ‘sect’, an attribution they make numerous former members according to their own experiences because it is closely related to the behaviors criticized and that have been described, and there is no norm in our legal system that, once officially recognized as a religious confession, prevents criticizing this condition.
In the 73-page ruling, which has been delayed for almost a year, as specified by the judge “due to the overload of powers of the Court of First Instance, which is also the Court of Family and Disabilities and Internment of adults and minors, with the aggravating circumstance of having suffered a concomitant temporary incapacity for this judge”, it is argued that the examples and fragments of the religious texts of the Jehovah’s Witnesses “can be considered in our days as excessive control over the lives of the faithful” , and that “the insistence on knowing details of certain relationships, sentimental or not, distrusting testimonies or the obligation to first consult the elders [religious leaders in the Jehovah’s Witnesses], respecting a strict hierarchical system, reveal an atmosphere of insistent supervision.”
Israel Flórez, president of the AEVTJ, declared to La Vanguardia, after learning of the ruling: “We are euphoric, this sentence is going to give rise to many things, now we are going to go after them through criminal means.” Flórez, who feels like a victim of the Jehovah’s Witnesses because, among other things, her sister ended up committing suicide due to the psychological pressure that the community supposedly exerted on her, advanced the possibility that the members of the AEVTJ could file several lawsuits, measures which they will surely present next Monday at a press conference held in Madrid.
For their part, the Jehovah’s Witnesses announced that they will appeal the sentence in an official statement in which they assure: “Jehovah’s Witnesses are quite perplexed and dismayed to see that the judge has deliberately ignored the documentary and testimonial evidence that we presented.” in the hearings. Authoritative scientific studies and decisions of international courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, have clearly demonstrated the falsity of the AEVTJ’s serious accusations.”
The AEVTJ lawyer, Carlos Bardavío, considers that the appeal that Jehovah’s Witnesses may present in the Provincial Court and higher instances will not have much impact due to the “excellent argumentation of the sentence” and points out that the ruling “recognizes excessive control on their members and their lives, which, although not malicious, allows them to be called a sect.”
Bardavío believes that the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses for their discrimination in Russia referred to a claim about religious freedom and that it cannot be compared with this process in which it is decided whether certain rules and confession behaviors can generate victims.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses maintain in their official statement that “this questionable judicial decision radically contrasts with the two recent sentences handed down by another judge from Torrejón de Ardoz. On October 27, 2023, the court ruled against the secretary of the AEVTJ. In In this trial, the secretary of the AEVTJ was convicted for stating that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are a sect. Likewise, on October 2, 2023, the newspaper El Mundo was condemned for spreading accusations made by the AEVTJ against the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The court considered that these accusations are “manifestly false or unfounded.”
