A Spanish priest faces a possible three-year prison sentence after being found guilty of making allegedly “Islamophobic” statements.

Fr Custodio Ballester, together with another priest, Fr Jesús Calvo, and a journalist, Armando Robles, were accused by the Association of Spanish Muslims Against Islamophobia of making the comments in a 2017 interview on an online talk show called La Ratonera.

Speaking to the Catholic News Agency about his upcoming sentencing, Fr Custodio said his comments had never been discriminatory or hateful, adding: “The survival of freedom of expression in today’s Spain depends on the ruling in this case. Otherwise, we’ll be headed towards a new Cuban dictatorship — one where you were arrested for what you said as well as for what you thought, if it differed from what [Cuban communist dictator] Fidel Castro decided.”

Fr Custodio has long been at the centre of the religious freedom debate in Spain. In 2016, he wrote that “Islam does not allow for dialogue. You either believe or you are an infidel who must be subdued one way or another.”

He said he will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if he is jailed.