The Provincial Court of Alicante has upheld the conviction of Joaquín Hernández Sáez, the Mayor of Dolores and regional secretary of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party), for a minor assault charge, but has reduced the fine imposed in the first instance. The court rejected the acquittal requested by his defence and confirmed that the incident was a mutually agreed-upon fight, not an act of self-defence for which both men were convicted.
The ruling therefore only partially upholds the appeal: it does not acquit the mayor, rejects the defence’s argument, and confirms the remaining judgments. Furthermore, it orders the court to pay the costs of the appeal and notes that this ruling is final. The judgment also upholds the conviction for the same crime of the other person involved in the fight.
According to the ruling, Hernández and José María Argilés, a local resident and businessman known as “El Paloma,” confronted each other in the street after exchanging insults. Argilés grabbed Hernández’s shirt, and Hernández held him tightly by the wrists and shoulders, which ended with both of them on the ground.
The criminal conviction stands. The Court considers it proven that Hernández’s conduct constitutes a minor offence of assault, based on the statements, medical reports, and forensic report, as stated in the initial conviction. It also rules out the possibility of self-defence because, in a fight “accepted by both combatants” as the ruling states verbatim, there is no unilateral unlawful aggression that would allow for the application of that defence.
The only significant change is in the penalty: the fine is reduced from three months to two months, but the daily rate of 10 euro remains the same. In practice, the penalty is reduced to 600 euro from the initially imposed 900 euro.
The 11th section of the Provincial Court of Alicante, based in Elche, corrects the duration of the fine because the initial sentence did not explain why it imposed the maximum of three months, although it does consider the fee of 10 euro correct and rejects lowering it to the 6 euro per day requested by the defence.
The Court of Instruction number 1 of Orihuela decided last April to condemn the mayor of Dolores after this altercation in the street with this neighbour and local businessman known as “El Paloma”, whom it also condemned, since the court considers it proven that the two assaulted each other and that the situation resulted in a fall to the ground and injuries.
The judge stated in that ruling, which has now been largely ratified, that it was proven that there was a conflictive relationship between the parties, having had several public disagreements between them.
The events took place on August 9th, 2024, at approximately 5:35 p.m., when Argilés was leaving the Coyote bar after lunch with a group of friends and encountered Hernández in the town square. The two began hurling insults and profanities at each other, moving closer until they came face to face. Argilés grabbed the mayor’s shirt, and Hernández, in turn, grabbed him forcefully by the wrists and shoulders, not in self-defence but with force and violence, according to the court ruling. It was precisely this force that caused both of them to fall to the ground.
In this appeal, which was resolved at the end of 2025 but has only now been made public, he tried to prove, unsuccessfully, that grabbing the neighbour’s wrists was in self-defence and that the neighbour’s fall was due to his own lack of mobility and not to the force used.
