Marilo Montero breathe calmly now. And, after a legal battle that lasted nine years, Diego Arrabal y Gustavo Gonzalez They were sentenced this Thursday to ten months in prisonas well as to pay legal costs and a fine of six euros per day for eight months. The presenter requested six years in prison and compensation of 265,000 euros for the paparazzi for photographing her topless during a vacation in Bora Bora. Now, she has shown her gratitude to the judges.
The communicator she feels “grateful to Justice”as reported by his legal team to The Spanish, since the conviction represents “an advance in the defense of the privacy of a public person.” He considers it a triumph that also has an impact on other personalities. “Harassment of public figures is known,” they say.
In this sense, Montero’s lawyers assure that this ruling “will mark a before and after” in issues related to the monitoring of certain personalities in the public sphere. This is, in fact, the first conviction of this type that falls on paparazzi.
Since the court ruling is not final, Arrabal and González can file an appeal before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia within a period of ten days. The aforementioned media reports that both will appeal the sentence.
On the other hand, the ruling of the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona indicated this Thursday “the special disqualification of Arrabal and González for the exercise of the right to passive suffrage for the duration of the sentence and for the exercise of any activity related to that of the press agencies for the same period.”
Arrabal’s reaction
Arrabal was the first to demonstrate after the sentence: “I am 52 years old. I have always believed in the justice of my country (Spain). Today, February 29, 2024, I stop believing,” he wrote on his social networks. And he stated: “They told me a few years ago, ‘Dieguito, they are coming for you’. It came from a very good source. Today it is confirmed, they want to destroy me.”
Almost a decade of judicial war
The story began nine years ago. Mariló Montero traveled to Bora Bora with a friend and was sunbathing semi-naked in her bungalow when she was photographed. The images were not published but the ex of Carlos Herrera filed a lawsuit against the reporters for “revelation of secrets.” She won the civil procedure (which sentenced the photographers to compensate the communicator and her friend with a total of 265,000 euros), but not satisfied with that, she also requested prison for those responsible.
The trial took place last January at the Barcelona Court: “I felt violated,” Montero said. There were 82 photographs that, according to her, “went from editorial to editorial, from hand to hand. They described them to me with such precision that it was really humiliating,” she said. The defense of the accused insisted that these images were never published but Mariló downplayed the detail: “With those photographs they raped me twice”said the journalist. “It was as if it had been shown on the front page”. She further explained that she received constant threats that forced her to “flee my country” and that she had to go to the United States to “end the persecution.”
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