MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Suspended sentence for campaigner who unfurled a Spanish flag in Gibraltar

He was one of a group of Spanish members of the right-wing VOX party who entered as part of a campaign in the run-up to Sunday’s general election in Spain.

The right-wing campaigner who helped unfurl a giant Spanish flag on the Upper Rock of Gibraltar has been released from custody after being handed a suspended sentence. Juan Ignacio Mínguez Martinez, 53, from Madrid, had admitted participating in the ‘politically motivated’ stunt and pleaded guilty last Wednesday to a charge of conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace.

 He was one of a group of Spanish members of the right-wing VOX party who entered as part of a campaign in the run-up to Sunday’s general election in Spain.

Mínguez Martínez, the leader of the rightwing party VOX in Madrid, was remanded in custody and was to have been sentenced next Tuesday. But on Sunday he made a bail application before the Magistrates Court, which refused bail and proceeded with the sentencing in any event.

The campaigner who had been in custody since last Monday, was sentenced to three weeks in jail, suspended for one year. He had already apologised to the court for his actions and acknowledged that his actions could have caused a disturbance and it was not his intention to hurt the Gibraltar population.

The court said that such actions were intolerable and that copycat stunts in the future can be dealt with by more severe penalties.