Spanish actor arrested for mocking God and the Virgin Mary

Willy Toledo to face court after ignoring two previous summons over Facebook post

Several high-profile actors, including Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, have spoken out in support of Willy Toledo (BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP/Getty Images)

A Spanish actor has been arrested and detained for questioning after ridiculing the Virgin Mary and God, fuelling criticism of tight controls on freedom of speech in the country.

A Madrid court issued an arrest warrant for Willy Toledo after a lawyers’ association accused him of offending religious feelings.

Mr Toledo ignored two previous summons, saying he had not “committed any offence and so there is no need to appear before a judge”.

The Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers filed a complaint with the public prosecutor over a Facebook post by Mr Toledo in which he criticised an investigation of three women in Seville who paraded a large model of a vagina through the streets.

The protest simulated a religious procession and was dubbed the “coño insumiso”, or “insubordinate pussy”.

Mr Toledo said the judge in the case was “possessed by the devil”, adding: “I s**t on God and have enough s**t left over to s**t on the dogma of the saintliness and virginity of the Virgin Mary.

“This country is unbearably shameful. I’m disgusted. Go f**k yourselves. Long live the Insubordinate Pussy.”

The Christian association accused Mr Toledo of “covering God and the Virgin Mary with ridicule”.

Mr Toledo announced in March he would ignore any summons to appear in court over the complaint.

“From here, I would like to inform the hitmen from the Francoist Borbón Spanish regime that I have absolutely no intention of wasting a single second of my life by appearing before your most illustrious lordships,” he said.

A court ordered he be detained after he ignored a second summons to appear for questioning in June.

The Christian association said Mr Toledo was pulling a publicity stunt. “It’s been seven years since he had a job,” said Polonia Castellanos, the president of the organisation.

She claimed Mr Toledo believed he was above the law and was entitled to “special privileges” because of his fame.

Several high-profile actors, including Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, have spoken out in support of Mr Toledo. Bardem said Spain risked a return to the repressive era of dictator Francisco Franco.

Campaigners said Mr Toledo is the latest victim of a crackdown on free speech.

“In many instances, authorities pressed criminal charges against people who had expressed opinions that did not constitute incitement to a terrorism-related offence and fell within the permissible forms of expression under international human rights law,” Amnesty International said in its 2017/18 annual report.

Scores of Spanish Twitter users and performers have been investigated and jailed for glorifying terrorism or insulting the king in recent months, including rapper Valtònyc, who is on the run in Belgium from a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence. A Belgian court is set to decide whether to extradite him on 17 September.