Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez didn’t announce 5-year prison sentences for critics of Islam

Claim:

In March 2026, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that anyone insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith would face a five-year prison sentence.

Rating:

In March 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had announced that anyone insulting the Prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith would face a five-year prison sentence.

The Prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam and the proclaimer of the Quran, the holy scripture of Islam.

Early versions of the claim circulated in Arabic. An English translation read:

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez:
There is no place among us for those who insult religions

Sánchez: We hold the Holy Quran in high esteem and anyone who insults the Prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith faces a five-year prison sentence.

The claims circulated mainly on X (archive) but also on Facebook (archive), Instagram (archive) And Topics (archive).

Online searches revealed no credible reports that Sanchez had in fact announced a new law imposing five-year prison sentences on anyone who insults the Prophet Muhammad and Islam (archived, archived, archived, archived). Reputable media like Reuters or Associated Press would have reported on the issue if Sánchez had proposed or announced it as law.

Neither “Muhammad,” “Mahoma” (a Spanish version of the Prophet Muhammad’s name) nor “Islam” appeared in the latest version of the Spanish penal code, which would have included such a law. The image that accompanied the statement, which showed Sánchez holding a Quran, appeared to have been photoshopped using artificial intelligence.

Considering the above, we consider this claim to be false, meaning that Sánchez did not make the claimed announcement.

Snopes contacted the Spanish government, which Sanchez chiefs, to ask questions about the alleged announcement and wait for a response to our question.

No evidence of Sánchez’s announcement in Spanish law

If Sánchez had announced a new law against criticism of Islam, this law would have been published in the latest edition of the country’s newspaper. criminal codethe Penal Code. This was not the case, even though some existing Spanish legislation has provided for sanctions for violations of freedom of expression for decades.

Since 1996, the penal code has punished incitement or incitement to hatred or hostility against groups – including religious groups – with at least one year in prison. In 2015, Spain increased the maximum prison sentence for such offenses from three to four years.

The most recent version of the relevant law, section 1 of article 510 of the Código Penal of 2022, called a prison sentence of one to four years and a fine for people who:

…foster, promote or publicly incite, directly or indirectly, hatred, hostility, discrimination or violence against a group, part thereof or a specific person because of their membership in that group.

People who “produce, create, possess with the intention of distributing” material “likely to favor, promote or incite, directly or indirectly, to hatred, hostility, discrimination or violence against a group”, could also be liable to the same sanction, according to article 1.

Section 2 of Article 510 provided for up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine for people who “violate the dignity of persons through actions resulting in humiliation, contempt or discredit” of various groups defined in Section 1, including religious groups.

The penalty for crimes defined in Article 2 could increase to match the one to four years’ imprisonment and fine that courts have imposed for Article 1 offenses if the Article 2 offense “promotes or promotes”a climate of violence, hostility, hatred or discrimination against the aforementioned groups.

Article 510 did not specifically mention Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.

A false image further discredits the claim

Aside from the lack of evidence in reports or legal filings for Sánchez’s claimed announcement, the image that circulated alongside the claim served to further discredit it.

This image, which seemed to show Sánchez holding a Quran, appears to have been edited using artificial intelligence. It seemed to be based on pictures by Sanchez Speaking on the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine during a press conference in Slovakia in 2022. The 2022 photos did not show Sánchez holding a Quran.

A closer inspection of the said Quran revealed that someone had altered Sánchez’s image. According to online research, the Quran held by Sánchez closely resembled a Mushaf al-Madinah Quran edition. The AI ​​or the person who edited the Quran in Sánchez’s hand poorly reproduced the blanketomitting details from the upper right and left corners and revealing that the image was fake.

DeepL.com provided translations from Arabic and Spanish to English.

Sources:

BOE-A-1995-25444 Ley Orgánica 10/1995, of November 23, Del Código Penal. https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1995-25444. Accessed March 20, 2026.

‘EPA Images | Visualize a bigger world.” EPA, https://epaimages.com/search.pp. Accessed March 20, 2026.

España Islam Profeta Mahoma 5 Años de Prisión – Search News. https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Espa%C3%B1a+islam+profeta+Mahoma+5+a%C3%B1os+de+prisi%C3%B 3n&qs=n&form=QBNT&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=%22el+sagrado+cor%C3%A1n+es+respetado+en+nuestro+pa%C3%ADs+y+ cualquiera+que+insult+al+profeta+mahoma+o+a+la+religi%C3%B3n+isl%C3%A1mica+se+enfrentar%C3%A 1+a+pena+de+prisi%C3%B3n+de+5+a%C3%B1os%22&sc=0-157&sk=&cvid=262FC1348B6944F58D63DD34C743CA9E. Accessed March 20, 2026.

España Islam Profeta Mahoma 5 years in prison – Yahoo search results. https://news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A2RRjuuB_rxpoAQAOsfQtDMD;_ylc=X1MDNTM3MjAyNzIEX3IDMgRmcgN5ZnAtdARmcjIDc2ItdG9w BGdwcmlkA0dabmQzd1BQVElTbEd2Z1NCLi5YSEEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzAEb3JpZ2luA25ld3Muc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgME cHFzdHJsAzAEcXN0cmwDNDUEcXVlcnkDRXNwYSVDMyVCMWElMjBpc2xhbSUyMHByb2ZldGElMjBNYWhvbWElMjA1JTIwYSVDMyVCMW9zJTIwZGUlMjBwcmlz aSVDMyVCM24EdF9zdG1wAzE3NzM5OTM3MTc-?p=Espa%C3%B1a+islam+profeta+Mahoma+5+a%C3%B1os+de+prisi%C3%B3n&fr=yfp-t&fr2=sb-top. Accessed March 20, 2026.

España Islam Profeta Mahoma 5 years in prison at DuckDuckGo. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Espa%C3%B1a+islam+profeta+Mahoma+5+a%C3%B1os+de+prisi%C3%B3n&iar=news&t=h_. Accessed March 20, 2026.

Google search. https://www.google.com/search?q=Espa%C3%B1a+islam+profeta+Mahoma+5+a%C3%B1os+de+prisi%C3%B3n&sca_esv=3d0acf0c92308fb4&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB1138GB1138&biw=1920&bih=845&tbm =nws&sxsrf=ANbL-n5Sdpx-WUKJCmQA6j_asfH0rGhM8A%3A1773993588809&ei=dP68aaiRMd6JptQPx 7Lh8Q4&ved=0ahUKEwiom8eNga6TAxXehIkEHUdZOO4Q4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=Espa%C3%B1a+islam+pro feta+Mahoma+5+a%C3%B1os+de+prisi%C3%B3n&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LW5ld3MiMEVzcGHDsWEgaXNs YW0gcHJvZmV0YSBNYWhvbWEgNSBhw7FvcyBkZSBwcmlzacOzbjIFEAAY7wUyBRAAGO8FMgUQABjvBTIFEAA Y7wUyCBAAGIAEGKIESJM2UABY-TRwAXgAkAEAmAG9AaABugSqAQMwLjS4AQPIAQD4AQH4AQKYAgSgAtUEq AIAwgIFECEYoAGYAwOSBwMwLjSgB98PsgcDMC40uAfVBMIHAzItNMgHEIAIAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-news. Accessed March 20, 2026.

‘Mushaf Al-Madinah – Original Large Format (20×28 Cm)’. SifatuSafwa, https://www.sifatusafwa.com/en/quran-mushaf/mushaf-al-madinah-original-large-format-20×28-cm.html. Accessed March 20, 2026.

Pedro Sánchez calls for urgent EU action on electricity costs and expresses solidarity with Slovakia in the Ukraine crisis. https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/lang/en/presidente/news/paginas/2022/20220316_visit-to-slovakia.aspx. Accessed March 20, 2026.

Sinai, Nicolai. “Mohammed.” Britannica, March 9, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad.