The investigating judge Arturo Zamarriego has archived the querella brought by Íñigo Errejón against actress Elisa Mouliaá on 26 August 2026 for alleged defamation. According to sources in the judiciary, as reported by Spanish media, the Juzgado de Instrucción número 9 in Madrid found that the actress’s disputed statements did not make a sufficiently specific allegation of a criminal offence, but were value judgements made in the context of public debate.
The complaint was based on two Tweets and other online statements in which Mouliaá had accused Errejón of influencing or blackmailing witnesses in a separate case. The ruling now issued states that these statements do not identify a precise, legally actionable criminal offence and therefore do not cross the threshold for criminal defamation. The finding expressly concerns only the criminal assessment of the published statements, not other independent proceedings.
Mouliaá had been questioned on 24 June 2026 at Juzgado de Instrucción número 9 in Madrid. She said that she had posted the tweets because, after watching a video excerpt from a witness examination, she had gained the impression that there had previously been conversations with Errejón. She also stressed that she had not intended to discredit the former MP in criminal terms. She had previously failed to attend summonses several times, prompting the judge in charge to threaten coercive measures; she ultimately gave evidence voluntarily.
The archiving ends the criminal examination of this specific allegation against the actress. Errejón remains free to consider civil proceedings over possible injury to his reputation; the ruling can also be appealed, for example by means of a recurso to the next higher court. Political assessments of the dispute should be kept separate from the legal decision. Today’s step is not a ruling on the substance of other proceedings and makes no finding about the truth of the allegations made in the tweets; it is limited to the question of whether criminal calumnias had occurred.
The case illustrates the fine line drawn by the Spanish justice system between forceful allegations and protected expressions of opinion in the digital sphere. The key question is whether a specific, verifiable act is alleged. The ruling found that this was not the case with Elisa Mouliaá and Íñigo Errejón.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).