Charges dropped against two Barca fans for allegedly insulting Vinicius with racist slurs

A Barcelona judge has dropped the case opened against two Barcelona fans for racist insults against Real Madrid player Vinicius in the ‘Clásico’ of October 2023 in Montjuïc, although she has referred the case to the Office of Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination. 

As reported to ‘EFE’ by legal sources, in accordance with the criteria of the Prosecutor's Office, the head of the 18th examining court of Barcelona, Carmen Garcia, has closed the open investigation by not seeing hate crime in the insults, since they had no consequences and, moreover, the footballer did not even hear them. 

Both the accusation exercised by Real Madrid and the player, as well as by La Liga, have already appealed before the Barcelona Court against the closure of the investigation, which was opened as a result of an attestation made by the Mossos d'Esquadra for some racist chants and insults made against the player in a Barça-Madrid match played at the Montjuïc stadium in October 2023.

Identified by recordings

The recordings of the stadium cameras and the statement of a witness allowed the identification of three Barca supporters, one of them a minor, as the authors of the shouts.

One of the two investigated took advantage of his right not to testify before the investigating judge, while another recognized himself in the images of the recording provided by the Mossos, although he denied that his shouts were offensive because he had simply shouted “mucho morro” (you have a lot of cheek) at the referee following a controversial play by Vinicius.

The Barcelona Hate Crimes Prosecutor's Office asked the judge to close the case, arguing that the expressions uttered by the defendants could not be clarified and that, even if they were offensive, they did not constitute a crime of incitement to hatred, since they did not provoke an "appeal effect" among the public or the suspension of the match.

In fact, the public prosecutor argued that “there is not even certainty” of what expressions were proffered against the footballer: “put* mono”according to a lip reading report provided by La Liga, “dumb monkey” according to Vinicius and “mucho morro” according to the investigated.

The magistrate agrees with the prosecutor that the insults were not serious enough to put coexistence at risk - as required by the crime of incitement to hatred -, had no consequences and, moreover, Vinicius neither heard nor understood them.

In fact, in his statement as injured party, the footballer stated that he had felt offended because they had shouted "monkey" and "dumb monkey" at him, but he specified that he had not heard those expressions during the match, but afterwards, when he was shown the images of the recording.