Spain's Madrid Provincial Court has upheld a lower court ruling that describing Jehovah's Witnesses as a "destructive cult" does not constitute a crime, affirming that freedom of expression outweighs the religious organisation's right to honour. The case was brought by the Jehovah's Witnesses against the Spanish Association of Victims of Jehovah's Witnesses (AEVTJ), a group composed largely of former members, who had sought €25,000 in damages and demanded the association shut down its website and social media accounts. The court found that the language used by the association was grounded in the real experiences of roughly 70 people who testified to serious harms, including mental illness, discrimination, and alleged cover-ups of sexual abuse; the Jehovah's Witnesses have 20 working days to appeal to Spain's Supreme Court.