Claim:
In March 2026, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that anyone who insulted the Prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith would face a five-year prison sentence.
Rating:
Rating: False
In March 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced anyone who insulted 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, Islam’s holy scripture.
Early versions of the claim circulated in Arabic. A translation into English read:
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez:
There is no place among us for those who insult religionsSánchez: We hold the Holy Quran in high regard, and anyone who insults the Prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith will face a prison sentence of five years.
The claims circulated mainly on X (archived) but also on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived).
Online searches revealed no credible reports that Sánchez had actually announced a new law imposing five-year prison sentences on anyone who insulted the Prophet Muhammed and Islam (archived, archived, archived, archived). Reputable outlets like Reuters or The Associated Press would have reported on the matter if Sánchez had proposed it or announced it as law.
Neither “Muhammad,” “Mahoma” (a Spanish version of the Prophet Muhammad’s name) nor “Islam” featured in the latest version of the Spanish penal code, which would have included such a law. The image that accompanied the claim, which showed Sánchez holding a Quran, appeared to have been edited using artificial intelligence.
Given the above, we rate this claim false, meaning Sánchez didn’t make the claimed announcement.
Snopes contacted the Spanish government, which Sánchez heads, to ask about the alleged announcement and await a reply to our query.
No evidence of Sánchez announcement in Spanish law
If Sánchez had announced a newly-passed law against criticizing Islam, the law would have appeared in the latest edition of the country’s criminal code, the Código Penal. That was not the case, though some of Spain’s existing legislation has outline punishments for free speech offenses for decades.
The penal code has made promoting or inciting hatred or hostility against groups — including religious groups — punishable by at least a year in prison since 1996. In 2015, Spain increased the maximum prison term 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 from 2022, called for a one-to-four-year prison sentence and fine for people who:
… publicly foster, promote, or incite, directly or indirectly, hatred, hostility, discrimination, or violence against a group, a part thereof, or a specific person on the grounds of their membership in that group.
People who “produce, create, possess with the intent to distribute” material that “is suitable for fostering, promoting, or inciting, directly or indirectly, hatred, hostility, discrimination, or violence against a group,” could also face the same punishment, according to Section 1.
Section 2 of Article 510 called for up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine for people who “injure the dignity of persons through actions that entail humiliation, contempt or discrediting” of various groups defined in Section 1 that included religious groups.
The punishment for crimes defined in Section 2 could increase to match the one-to-four-year prison sentence and fine that courts gave out for Section 1 offenses if the Section 2 offense promoted or favored “a climate of violence, hostility, hatred or discrimination against the aforementioned groups.”
Article 510 did not specifically mention Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
Fake image further discredited claim
Aside from a lack of evidence in reports or legal records of Sánchez’s claimed announcement, the image that circulated alongside the claim served to further discredit it.
That image, which appeared to show Sánchez holding a Quran, appeared to have been edited using artificial intelligence. It appeared to be based on photos of Sánchez speaking about the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine at a news conference in Slovakia in 2022. The 2022 photos did not show Sánchez holding a Quran.
Closer inspection of said Quran revealed someone had edited the image of Sánchez. According to online searches, the Quran Sánchez held closely resembled a Mushaf al-Madinah edition Quran. The AI or person that edited the Quran into Sánchez’ hand incorrectly replicated the front cover, omitting details from the top right and left corners and revealing the image to be fake.
DeepL.com provided translations from Arabic and Spanish into English.
Sources:
BOE-A-1995-25444 Ley Orgánica 10/1995, de 23 de Noviembre, Del Código Penal. https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1995-25444. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
‘EPA Images | Visualize a Wider World’. EPA, https://epaimages.com/search.pp. Accessed 20 Mar. 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%B3n&qs=n&form=QBNT&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=%22el+sagrado+cor%C3%A1n+es+respetado+en+nuestro+pa%C3%ADs+y+cualquiera+que+insulte+al+profeta+mahoma+o+a+la+religi%C3%B3n+isl%C3%A1mica+se+enfrentar%C3%A1+a+pena+de+prisi%C3%B3n+de+5+a%C3%B1os%22&sc=0-157&sk=&cvid=262FC1348B6944F58D63DD34C743CA9E. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
España Islam Profeta Mahoma 5 Años de Prisión – Yahoo Search Results. https://news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A2RRjuuB_rxpoAQAOsfQtDMD;_ylc=X1MDNTM3MjAyNzIEX3IDMgRmcgN5ZnAtdARmcjIDc2ItdG9wBGdwcmlkA0dabmQzd1BQVElTbEd2Z1NCLi5YSEEEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzAEb3JpZ2luA25ld3Muc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAzAEcXN0cmwDNDUEcXVlcnkDRXNwYSVDMyVCMWElMjBpc2xhbSUyMHByb2ZldGElMjBNYWhvbWElMjA1JTIwYSVDMyVCMW9zJTIwZGUlMjBwcmlzaSVDMyVCM24EdF9zdG1wAzE3NzM5OTM3MTc-?p=Espa%C3%B1a+islam+profeta+Mahoma+5+a%C3%B1os+de+prisi%C3%B3n&fr=yfp-t&fr2=sb-top. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
España Islam Profeta Mahoma 5 Años de Prisión 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 20 Mar. 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 20 Mar. 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 20 Mar. 2026.
Sinai, Nicolai. ‘Muhammad’. Britannica, 9 Mar. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad.