The historic Galician drug trafficker Laureano Oubiña has returned to court. Unlike his previous appearances before judges as a defendant for crimes such as money laundering, drug trafficking or aggression against authority, on this occasion, he has done so as a plaintiff. Next to him, as defendants, the corporations Atresmedia y Netflix and the producer Bamboowhom he accuses of being responsible for the series flourof offering a “falsified and ridiculed image” of him that does not correspond to reality and presents him “as a true monster.”
The demand involves the request of 1.5 million euros for having violated his right to honor, personal and family privacy and his own image, but he has found himself face to face with the rejection of the Prosecutor’s Office. At the oral hearing held in Mixed Court number 3 of Vilagarcíathe prosecutor has asked the judge to dismiss it and has called the request for this million-dollar compensation “totally disproportionate.”
All of the defendants ask that this lawsuit be dismissed and Bambú’s lawyer also warns that his approach “poses a risk and a serious danger to freedom of expression” and, if successful, “would make the production of all types of series and films or the publication of books” about criminal acts.
This lawyer warns that, if successful, “it would prevent the genre of true crime or the publication of unauthorized biographies” if they do not have the approval of any type of criminal and “unless it is duly sweetened.” In this way, it would be resorting to “censorship” and an “inadmissible abuse” that would prevent resorting to freedom of creation. Precisely, this freedom of creation is the main argument of the Prosecutor’s Office and the rest of the parties to defend that the series does not incur any crime.
Oubiña attended the oral hearing carrying a copy of a book he authored at all times. Upon his arrival he claimed to be “perfectly calm” and, once the trial was over, he told the media: “We have already spoken, now justice has to speak.”