The Spanish Government will amend some articles of the Mordaza Act
- PSOE and UP-PSOE have agreed to reform the two most criticised points: the right of association and the right to record the police and disseminate images. The law has been in force since 2015, and although the two parties have expressed their intention to repeal it since 2018, they have not yet made any changes.
The government coalition has on several occasions since its mandate expressed its intention to repeal the Moorish Law, which was initiated by the government of pp in 2015. But since the beginning of the pandemic, more fines have been imposed than ever before using this law. The PSOE and the United Nations We Can, among others, have reached a pre-agreement to reform the two most critical points of the Mordaza Law. In this way, it is intended to close the deadline for tabling amendments to the budgets next week.
On the one hand, they seek to protect the fundamental right of association. Even without prior notice, citizenship may meet whenever it is “peaceful”. The Mordaza Act currently provides for several fines on the right of association: in “very serious” cases, between 30,000 and 60,000 euros, in “serious” cases, between 600 and 30,000 euros, and in “mild” cases, between 100 and 600 euros.
On the other hand, they want to authorize the collection and dissemination of police images provided that they “do not affect the security or the right to privacy of the police and their families”. This has been banned since 2015 and, on many occasions, has hampered the work of journalists. Journalist Axier López was the first to apply the Moorish Law to the Spanish Government and was fined 601 euros for spreading police images during his work at ARGIA.
Various groups have denounced that the Moorish Law is a rule that "violates fundamental rights". The United Nations has criticised the law from the outset and the European Human Rights Advisor has asked it to change the law because it is "repressive" and, among other things, because it limits freedom of expression. For example, the Catalan rapper Pablo Hasel was imprisoned under the Moorish Law for singing about the king of Spain last February.
Prohibition of immediate return of migrants
They have also decided to amend other points of the Moorish Act. So far, the PSOE had not wanted to discuss the issue of the immediate return of migrants, but it has finally agreed with UPyD that it should also leave it out of the Moorish Law. This matter will be subject to foreign legislation and international conventions, which prohibit refunds without legal guarantees.
The amount of fines that have been imposed has also been discussed. They must be "smaller and proportionate to the pensioner's income", although they have not specified the amount. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, between 2015 and 2020 nearly 376,000 fines have been imposed on citizens for the implementation of the Mordaza Law, amounting to EUR 252 million.
Finally, it is agreed that the maximum time to retain a person in police station is two hours, except in "exceptional" cases. In addition, the police must return the detainee to the place prior to the transfer to the police station, according to the same sources.
Nine years ago, pending the adoption of the Mordaza Law, the Council of Europe itself said that the law was going to be “disproportionate” and its “great concern”. “This law is a reactionary and conservative absurdity to criminalize street protest and criticism,”... [+]
