Charlie Smith
THE Prosecutor’s Office has asked that the case against Dani Mateo, the comedian who blew his nose on the Spanish flag, be dropped.
It made the request in a letter sent to the Court of Instruction number 47, claiming the presenter’s antics did not constitute a crime of ‘outrage’ or ‘incitement to hatred’.
The Catalan comic made a public apology at the time of the performance, and now the public prosecutor has backed him by saying his work was merely ‘challenging’, not criminal.
If found guilty of a hate crime, Mateo could have faced a fine or up to four years in prison.
Mateo’s sketch on the satirical news show El Intermedio was excused ‘under the prism of freedom of expression’.
The Alternative Union of Police brought the original complaint following the broadcast by LaSexta.
The skit saw him joke that the only text which has ‘general consensus in Spain, is the patient guidelines on a packet of [cold remedy] Frenadol’.
As he read out the instructions for the drug, the comedian pretended to sneeze and blew his nose on the Spanish flag.
“Christ, sorry! I didn’t want to offend Spaniards, nor the king, nor the Chinese who sell these rags. Not rags, I didn’t mean rags,” he said.
Mateo became embroiled in a nationwide outrage at the time of the incident.
But now the incident appears to have been put to bed, with the public prosecutor ending the request by saying ‘he did not pursue violence or revenge’.
