Flag stunt man gets suspended sentence

A right-wing campaigner who helped unfurl a giant Spanish flag on the Upper Rock has been released from custody after being handed a suspended sentence.

Juan Ignacio Mínguez Martinez, 53, from Madrid, had admitted participating in the ‘politically motivated’ stunt and pleaded guilty last Wednesday to a charge of conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace.

He was one of a group of Spanish members of the right-wing VOX party who entered as part of a campaign in the run-up to Sunday’s general election in Spain.

Mínguez, the leader of the rightwing party VOX in Madrid, was remanded in custody and was to have been sentenced next Tuesday.

But yesterday he made a bail application before the Magistrates Court, which refused bail and proceeded with the sentencing in any event.

Mínguez, who had been in custody since Monday, was sentenced to three weeks in jail, suspended for one year.

He had already apologised to the court for his actions and acknowledged that Gibraltar was British and that his actions could have caused a disturbance.

The court said that such actions were intolerable and that copycat stunts in the future can be dealt with by more severe penalties.