The journalist can now sleep peacefully. After a battle that lasted nine years, Marilo Montero has achieved her goal: a criminal conviction for the paparazzi who photographed her topless during a vacation in Bora Bora with a friend. They, Diego Arrabal and Gustavo Gonzalezhave been sentenced this Thursday to ten months in prisonin addition to a fine of six euros a day for eight months and the half of the legal costs.
The ruling of the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona also points out “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.” The court ruling is not final, so 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. Let us remember that Mariló Montero requested six years in prison and compensation of 265,000 euros.
Arrabal was the first to speak out 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 social networks. “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,” he said.
I am 52 years old. I have always believed in the justice of my country (Spain). Today, February 29, 2024, I stop believing. I was told a few years ago that “Dieguito is coming for you” and it came from a very good source. Today it is confirmed, they want to destroy me. (Whoever has a godfather is baptized)
— Diego Arrabal (DA) (@DIEGOARRABAL1) February 29, 2024
A long court battle
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.”
