Catalan actor testifies in court after tweeting about Spanish judge

Catalan actor Toni Albà testified in a local court on Tuesday accused of “slander” for several tweets he published about the judge who was originally in charge of the independence case, Carmen Lamela, and also about the Spanish police. He said he “only wanted to make people laugh” with the tweets. “My work consists of seeking sarcasm and political satire, imitating and use the freedom of speech the way I know,” he said to the press after testifying for around one hour.

Toni Albà has been impersonating the former Spanish king Juan Carlos and many other dignitaries in both theater and television for years. Indeed, when he was summoned to appear in court last November, he thought he would be investigated for one of these performances, because the legal documents regarding his case included pictures of himself dressed as King Juan Carlos and as Philip V, the 18^th century Spanish king. Yet on Tuesday Albà explained this was not being investigated.