Post by account_disabled on Feb 24, 2024 23:33:04 GMT -5
The Supreme Court has upheld the appeal filed by the Barcelona Metropolitan Railway company against the ruling of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, which confirmed the resolution that acquitted five men of the crime of damage who painted the metro cars of that capital. To damage means to cause harm and whoever tarnishes causes it, maintains the Supreme Court.
The defendants in this process stopped the convoy, pressing the emergency button and painted graffiti on both sides of the subway cars. The cleaning costs amounted to 4,175 euros . Due to these events, the Criminal Court number 23 of Barcelona acquitted them of the crime of damages of which they were accused. The Provincial Court of Barcelona confirmed this ruling by rejecting the appeal filed by the company that owns the wagons.
The Supreme Court, responding to the second of the reasons raised in the appeal, considers that the arguments provided by the judges of the previous instances “enjoy sufficient solvency to have been assumed by many jurisdictional bodies” and recognizes that the “ minor jurisprudence "I was divided . " Thus, some hearing had maintained Fax Lists that “we would be facing a mere lackluster, atypical after the decriminalization of the specific offense (old article 626 CP). On the other hand, if the removal of the paintings generates a real impairment or deterioration of the object that requires its replacement , article 263 CP would apply.” The amount of this impairment would be what would determine whether we are dealing with a minor or less serious crime.
The judges of the High Court consider that the crime of damage should not be applied only when destruction or disabling occurs , but, as the type itself contemplates, it also includes impairment. The RAE's definition of impairment includes deterioration. “To tarnish something, to take away part of the shine it had before.” Thus, “from a logical interpretation, the carrying out of the graffiti produces damage to the property, subsumable in the crime of damage since the repair requires an economic outlay. (…) We could hardly affirm that the wagons have not been damaged and/or deteriorated, when a repair, economically evaluable , is necessary to restore them to the state in which their owner had them.”
In ruling 628/2023 he takes a look at the evolution of this crime. The facts, until 2015, could be framed in the crime of tarnishment of property of article 626 of the Penal Code, but the fact that it was repealed on that date, the court maintains, does not mean that the tarnishment, understood as an action “of removing grace, attractiveness or luster to a thing”, must be decriminalized and relegated exclusively to the sanctioning administrative scope of the Citizen Security Law . If before there was “a discussion between the crime of damage and the lack of tarnishing, now the discussion takes place between the crime and the minor crime and the administrative infraction” that we just mentioned. In each case, it will be necessary to act, he points out, with criteria of proportionality. In this way, the High Court upholds the appeal filed by the private prosecution and returns the case.
The defendants in this process stopped the convoy, pressing the emergency button and painted graffiti on both sides of the subway cars. The cleaning costs amounted to 4,175 euros . Due to these events, the Criminal Court number 23 of Barcelona acquitted them of the crime of damages of which they were accused. The Provincial Court of Barcelona confirmed this ruling by rejecting the appeal filed by the company that owns the wagons.
The Supreme Court, responding to the second of the reasons raised in the appeal, considers that the arguments provided by the judges of the previous instances “enjoy sufficient solvency to have been assumed by many jurisdictional bodies” and recognizes that the “ minor jurisprudence "I was divided . " Thus, some hearing had maintained Fax Lists that “we would be facing a mere lackluster, atypical after the decriminalization of the specific offense (old article 626 CP). On the other hand, if the removal of the paintings generates a real impairment or deterioration of the object that requires its replacement , article 263 CP would apply.” The amount of this impairment would be what would determine whether we are dealing with a minor or less serious crime.
The judges of the High Court consider that the crime of damage should not be applied only when destruction or disabling occurs , but, as the type itself contemplates, it also includes impairment. The RAE's definition of impairment includes deterioration. “To tarnish something, to take away part of the shine it had before.” Thus, “from a logical interpretation, the carrying out of the graffiti produces damage to the property, subsumable in the crime of damage since the repair requires an economic outlay. (…) We could hardly affirm that the wagons have not been damaged and/or deteriorated, when a repair, economically evaluable , is necessary to restore them to the state in which their owner had them.”
In ruling 628/2023 he takes a look at the evolution of this crime. The facts, until 2015, could be framed in the crime of tarnishment of property of article 626 of the Penal Code, but the fact that it was repealed on that date, the court maintains, does not mean that the tarnishment, understood as an action “of removing grace, attractiveness or luster to a thing”, must be decriminalized and relegated exclusively to the sanctioning administrative scope of the Citizen Security Law . If before there was “a discussion between the crime of damage and the lack of tarnishing, now the discussion takes place between the crime and the minor crime and the administrative infraction” that we just mentioned. In each case, it will be necessary to act, he points out, with criteria of proportionality. In this way, the High Court upholds the appeal filed by the private prosecution and returns the case.