Spanish State Prosecutor Claims that Incitement to Hatred Against Nazis can be Considered a Hate-Crime

“A sick joke, a slap at all Holocaust survivors, just like the claim that the Nazis could never forgive the Jews for forcing them to build Auschwitz,” said the Simon Wiesenthal center.

The criminalization of hate crimes has been one of the headaches for the Spanish State Prosecutor’s Office.

The term covers a broad spectrum of crimes, including those motivated by factors such as xenophobia, anti-Semitism or, among others, homophobia, all of which are crimes committed with discriminatory motives.

Now, according to a report by the Prosecutor’s Office, incitement to hatred of the Nazis is also considered a crime.

In Circular 7/2019, on guidelines for interpreting hate crimes under article 510 of the Criminal Code, the body states that:

“The origin of the hate crime is related to the protection of disadvantaged groups” but dissociates the “vulnerability” of a group as an “element of the criminal type that needs to be accredited”, clarifying that it is the legislator who “by including it in the criminal type, takes that vulnerability as a starting point.”

The document points out that “an aggression against a person of Nazi ideology, or the incitement to hatred towards such a group, may be included in this type of crime”.

In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed shock “to learn about a brief prepared by the State Prosecutor (Circular 7/2019 on the Signs to Recognize Hate Crime…). This claims that ‘incitement to hatred against Nazis’ can be considered as ‘a hate crime’.”

The Prosecution argued: “The origin of the hate crime is related to the protection of vulnerable communities”… “An aggression against a person of Nazi ideology or incitement to hatred towards such a group can be included in this type of crime.”

Comments included on the web:

– “Would it be a crime to incite to hatred of… ISIS or ETA… or those whose ideology supports the murder of ‘inferior races’?”

Samuels questioned: “Should we expect the imprisonment of Auschwitz survivors for having incited hatred of the Nazis?”

The Centre urged the Prime Minister “to take appropriate measures, on this International Holocaust Commemoration Day, against those who would desecrate memory and banalize Nazi atrocities.”