Two Femen activists are judged to be chained to the Almudena altar
The criminal court number 23 of Madrid is currently judging two Femen activists who chained themselves naked on June 13, 2014 to the main altar of the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid in a protest in favor of abortion.
The Office of the Prosecutor requests nine months of prison for each one for a crime against religious sentiments because they acted "with the intention of offending the parishioners" and lacked "respect due to a place of worship", while the private accusation exercised by the Association Spanish Christian Lawyers, raises his request up to two years in prison and 46 months of fine.
The defense demands the free acquittal of the accused by stating that "the spirit that moved their action was obviously not the religious offense but the promotion of social debate" on the reform of the Law of Abortion "carried out in a place of evident symbology".
And they did, according to their lawyer Endika Zulueta, "with forms already used by old feminist movements - using the body as a vehicle for their message - thus achieving international repercussion."
According to the prosecution's account, the activists entered the cathedral accompanied by other unidentified persons, went to the main altar, stripped from the waist up and chained themselves to the crucifix and remained there until the police arrived and cut the chain with a shear.
His torsos read expressions such as "altar to abort," "Gallardón inquisitor," "illegal abortion" or "take the altar," according to the written Prosecutor's Office.
This is the third time that Femen activists are judged in Spain. The first was in 2006 when five young people were acquitted for having erupted half-naked in an anti-abortion march in Madrid in November 2013.
And the second in October of 2017 when a girl accepted a one-year prison sentence for an attack on former Minister of the Interior Jorge Fernández Díaz on April 23, 2015 at a ceremony in Madrid in which, as a protest against the so-called "Law Mordaza ", he threw a copy of the Spanish Constitution.
