Spanish doctor found guilty but acquitted in ‘stolen babies’ case
SPAIN An elderly Spanish doctor who became the first person to stand trial over the country’s infamous “stolen babies” scandal has been found guilty of all charges but acquitted because the statute of limitations had expired.
Eduardo Vela, who worked as a gynaecologist at the San Ramón clinic in Madrid, had been accused of taking Inés Madrigal from her biological mother in the spring of 1969 and giving her to the 46-yearold woman who was falsely certified as her birth mother and who would raise her. Prosecutors had sought an 11-year prison sentence for Vela on charges of unlawful detention, falsifying official documents and certifying a nonexistent birth. Judges at Madrid’s provincial court on Monday said that Vela’s landmark trial, which began at the end of June, had “indisputably proved” that he had committed the three offences and it was “crystal clear” the doctor, now 85, had faked official documents and handed the baby over to a couple who were not her parents. However, they ruled that too much time had passed for a conviction since Madrigal could not have been unlawfully detained once she became an adult and had only brought her complaint against Varela six years ago.
“As a consequence of all the above, and noting that the complainant reached her majority on 4 June 1987, and that the statute of limitations for the most serious crime unlawful detention is 10 years, and that the complaint was brought in April 2012, the crimes have expired under the statue of limitations,” they said in their judgment. The trial was a test case for the thousands of families who are thought to have been caught up in the illegal practice, which began shortly after Franco’s victory in the civil war and continued until well after the dictator’s death in 1975. Some estimates have suggested that as many as 300,000 babies may have been taken from their birth mothers and placed with other families who supported the Franco regime. Among those women targeted were single mothers, those with “degenerate” political views or those from poor backgrounds.
(The Guardian)