Public Prosecutor demands sexist writer and director declare

The public prosecutor’s office in Malaga has filed a formal complaint against the director of an online newspaper that stated a policewoman died because she was female.

Maria Lage was shot to death last November by a bank robber after he left the premises of a bank in Vigo, Galicia, with a hostage in tow.

During the ensuing shootout the robber also died and another police officer was seriously injured.

Online newspaper Alerta Digital later published an article, which was read more than 180,000 times but removed following numerous complaints, connecting the death of the policewoman to the “feminisation of military and police forces.”

The article asked: “Who could even think of sending a woman to deal with a dangerous robber?” and stated that women should be teaching children rather than facing criminals.

“Women today want to play at everything, wear every possible disguise, pretend to be men,” the unnamed writer continued.

The article then asked: “What was a woman, the mother of a six-month-old baby, doing facing a criminal with a gun at her hip?” before answering itself: “Putting herself at risk of death, getting herself killed by a murderer who might have thought twice if he had been facing two large men with less inclination to engage criminals in dialogue on the streets.”

Malaga’s public prosecutor’s office considered the article to constitute a crime of slander and demanded the director of the online paper is called to declare and identifies the writer to enable him to also be called.

The office also asked for the deceased policewoman’s family to be identified and offered legal support.