The Cheek Of It – Man Turns Up To Court Naked
This is the moment a man shows off his bare-faced cheek by turning up at court nude to appeal EUR 3,000 in fines for walking the streets naked.
Alejandro Colomar, 29, has been fined dozens of times – totalling EUR 3,000 – for his naked strolls along public streets, which he insists are not illegal.
But this did not stop the self-proclaimed naturist from showing up at the Valencia courthouse in south-eastern Spain in the buff on Tuesday, 27th September.
And his lawyer has reportedly argued that being naked in the street is not a crime.
The defendant claimed that his behaviour is “a legal practice” and defended his right to engage in it.
Colomar, a computer scientist who reportedly works remotely for an American IT security firm, was eventually persuaded to put some clothes on by police officers before he was allowed into the building.
He reportedly said that people have never given him trouble over him not wearing any clothes in the street and that, after searching online, he had determined that his conduct was perfectly legal.
He said that the only people who had given him any trouble were the police, stopping him every time he went out naked.
Sometimes he would be accompanied on his hikes by his mother, unnamed, who reportedly wears clothes.
Colomar reportedly intends to defend what he sees as an infringement on his rights.
He was reportedly summoned to court as part of his appeal process to have his fines cancelled.
His lawyer Pablo Mora reportedly said that being naked in the street is not a crime, but he admitted there was some vagueness when it came to the law, after the crime of ‘public scandal’ was abolished in the country in 1988, with that aspect now falling under municipal ordinances.
Mora reportedly said that the problem is that few city councils have actually regulated public nudity. Barcelona and Valladolid have, but Mora said that Valencia had not.
The defendant, based on this, reportedly even managed to have one of his fines cancelled.
But he also reportedly has a prior conviction for having entered a police station naked. A conviction that Colomar is appealing.
Mora cited a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on a similar case that occurred in the United Kingdom, which established that it could be understood that nudism was covered by the ideological freedom and freedom of expression contained in article 10 of the Declaration of Universal Rights.
The case is ongoing.