OTEGI MONDRAGON v. SPAIN JUDGMENT 3 B. The criminal proceedings in the Basque Country High Court of Justice 11. On 7 April 2003 the public prosecutor lodged a criminal complaint against the applicant for “serious insult against the King” within the meaning of Article 490 § 3 of the Criminal Code read in conjunction with Article 208, on account of his remarks made on 26 February 2003. 12. In the proceedings before the Basque Country High Court of Justice, which had jurisdiction to try the applicant because of his status as a member of parliament, the applicant argued that his remarks had constituted political criticism directed against the Head of the government of the Basque Country. He added that to say that the King of Spain was the Supreme Head of the Civil Guard did not imply any intention to undermine dignity or honour; it was merely a statement of the political reality in the Spanish State, where the King exercised supreme command over the armed forces. The applicant further argued that there was no insult or attempt to dishonour in saying that the Civil Guard had tortured the persons detained in connection with the closure of the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria because that was the reality, and proceedings had been instituted in that connection before the Madrid investigating judge no. 5. Numerous public figures had also commented on the subject. In sum, the applicant, as a politician, had sought to express political criticism in the context of freedom of expression, one of the foundations of the rule of law and democracy. He pointed out in that regard that politicians had greater freedom of manoeuvre when it came to informing society about matters of public interest. 13. In a judgment of 18 March 2005, the High Court of Justice found the applicant not guilty of the charges against him. After stating that his remarks had been “clearly offensive, improper, unjust, ignominious and divorced from reality”, the court found as follows: “... This is not an issue concerning the private life of the Head of State but one of rejection of the ties of political power deriving from the hereditary nature of the institution which he personally symbolises. ... [C]riticism of a constitutional institution is not excluded from the scope of the right to freedom of expression; in this case the latter has the status of a constitutional right which takes precedence over the right to honour. The Constitution does not guarantee the right to freedom of expression solely in relation to certain points of view that are considered correct, but in relation to all ideas, subject to the limits which it lays down ...” 14. The High Court of Justice summed up as follows: “[T]he [applicant’s] remarks were made in a public, political and institutional setting, regard being had not only to the speaker’s status as a member of parliament but also to the authority to which they were addressed, namely the State’s highest judicial authority, and to the context of political criticism of the [Head of the government of the Basque Country] for his official hospitality in receiving His Majesty King Juan Carlos I in the wake of the closure of the newspaper [Euskaldunon] Egunkaria and the detention of its senior managers, and the latter’s public allegations of ill-treatment. This context is therefore unconnected to the