Valencian Community

The head of the Court of Instruction number 15 of Valencia has issued an order confirming the prosecution of the former vice president of the Valencian Government, former counselor of Inclusive Policies and former leader of Compromís Mónica Oltra, and other former senior officials of that department, for the alleged cover-up of the sexual abuse of a minor under guardianship by Oltra’s ex-husband, a social educator. The judge, who had closed the case last April due to lack of evidence, reopened it in June by order of the Valencia Court and re-indicted the accused. They appealed that decision, and now the court rejects the appeals and confirms the new prosecution.

In an order dated Thursday and to which Europa Press has had access, the investigating magistrate endorses the reasoning of the prosecutor’s office who—despite agreeing with the initial file of the case—concluded in his report that the dismissal that What those investigated now asked for is “a procedural impossibility”, as all of them are accused “for their participation, greater or lesser, in one way or another, in the two episodes in which the Court maintains the existence of indications of criminality.” In the opinion of the prosecutor, not following this reopening order “would place the instructor in a position of rebellious obstinacy in the face of the mandate of the person who has legally been granted the power to review his decisions.”

The judge indicates in the order that “he cannot but rely on such reasoning” to dismiss the appeals for reform presented by five of the former senior officials investigated against the indictment order of June 21. In that resolution, the investigating magistrate issued an order transforming the preliminary proceedings into an abbreviated procedure “due to legal imperative”, in application of the order of the Fourth Section of the Court of Valencia that ordered the reopening of the case against the former vice president and her former senior officials.

The young woman who, being a minor and ward of the Valencian Generalitat, was a victim of sexual abuse by Oltra’s ex-husband, and who is the private prosecutor, demands three and a half years in prison for the former regional vice president and 12 years of disqualification for employment or office. public. The same penalty is requested by Vox, which acts as a popular accusation.

Archive and reopening

The case directed against Oltra and 15 other people – an investigation that led to the resignation of the Valencian leader in June 2022 – was archived by the investigating court in April of this year, as the judge did not see any crime in the actions of the former vice president nor an alleged cover-up of the abuses. The Prosecutor’s Office supported this decision.

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However, two months later, the Valencia Court partially upheld the appeals that the victim and the two popular accusations—Vox and the Government association of the former ultra leader Cristina Seguí—had presented against the file of the case, and ordered it to be reopened. The Court understood that the existence of a criminal offense could not be “clearly” ruled out and that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute those investigated, given the “plausible” hypothesis that, when the news of the abuses reached the Department of Equality, “ “The people who were aware of the facts and under whose protection and guardianship the minor was, would have tried to hide them.”

According to the Court, it should be during the oral trial, and not before, when the issues relating to the specific circumstances in which the events took place and the classification that they deserve are clarified. Likewise, the court noted signs of the possible commission of a crime in the formation of an informative file, once the matter had already been judicialized, in order to determine the veracity of the accusations made by the minor.