"You are digging your own grave": the harassment of a 'rider' is proven in court, but not the guilty
"What you have to do is cut off his legs." It is one of the messages addressed to Fernando García, rider linked to UGT, in several chats of associations related to the business model of multinational home delivery companies such as Glovo and Deliveroo, convicted of using false self-employed workers. The "harassment" took place during "months" in which it was finalizing the Rider Law, which declares the employment of these messengers. A magistrate has analyzed the case and, although she detects a possible crime of threats, she does not consider their authorship proven among the five people accused in the process, who are acquitted.
The legal case derives from the complaint that Fernando García presented to the Police, in which he reported the harassment in networks that he was suffering, with captures of several threatening messages in different chats of messengers contrary to the Rider Law, such as published this media.
On the one hand, Fernando García denounced at a police station an attack by another rider in those months prior to the approval of the law and, on the other, the threats suffered in WhatsApp and Telegram groups. The police investigation identified several participants in the messenger chats who used other names or nicknames and, in total, five people were charged with the harassing messages.
The ruling of the court of instruction number 39 of Madrid, to which elDiario.es has had access, includes in the proven facts that "for several months he has been harassed on the WhatsApp and Telegram social networks, directing expressions such as 'you are going to to end very badly, you are digging your own grave, what you have to do is cut off his legs...".
In these messenger chats, fights and confrontations were frequent regarding the Rider Law, where Fernando García (linked to UGT) had a position contrary to multinationals such as Glovo and Deliveroo for the abuse of false self-employed workers and branded them as "pro-company mafia" and "manure" to courier organizations related to their business model.
"From the documentation in the case it can be deduced that there is a situation of great conflict between the participants in the groups derived from the working conditions and different opinions that are held about the working conditions, without being of sufficient importance to be considered constitutive of criminal infraction", values the judge.
But, beyond the insults exchanged, threatening messages against García were spread in these groups. "What you have to do is cut off their legs with the bumper"; "be careful with insulting, let's see if I'm going to go to your house (...)"; "you're digging your own grave"; and "hopefully they stop him and beat up this SON OF A BITCH", as reported by this medium based on the complaint to the police. Personal data and images were also disseminated in the chats, as well as that of another rider from RidersxDerechos.
The magistrate acknowledges that there are messages that could commit a crime (without specifying which ones), but she does not consider that it is proven that they were committed by the five defendants: "Regarding the expressions that can be considered to constitute a minor crime of threats, there is no evidence duly accredited the authorship of the same by the accused".
For this reason, it acquits the five accused persons. "The foregoing prevents this judge from obtaining the conviction that any conviction requires. This is coupled with the constitutional principle of presumption of innocence to which every citizen is entitled, as long as his guilt is not proven," she recalls.
Fernando García regrets that these messages remain unpunished. "I'm very frustrated and I'm scared. It seems like a 'go for it' message, because despite trying these messages, nothing happens. It's a feeling of impunity," he says.
