Spanish Court Upholds Prison Sentence for Racist Attack on Moroccan Man

The events took place in October 2011 in the town of Reus, in northeastern Spain. After punching a Moroccan in the stomach while shouting "Arab shit", a man assaults a little further on another man dressed in a djellaba who was heading towards the mosque.

A week later, he shouted the same racist insults at women of Maghrebi origin, reports the EFE agency, which specifies that he was arrested a few hours later before being placed in custody.

In addition to a fine of 1,400 euros to each of the victims, the accused was sentenced by the Tarragona court to a sentence of one and a half years in prison for assault causing injury, a sentence aggravated by five months in prison for the racist nature of the assault. He will also have to stay more than 800 meters away from his victims. The man was not, however, convicted of insulting the Maghrebi women on the grounds that it was time-barred.

The Supreme Court dismissed the accused’s appeal, who had requested his acquittal, as well as that filed by the public prosecutor demanding a sentence for racist insults against Maghrebi women.