Catalonia's prosecutor's office denies three victims access to the investigation into the rapes they suffered
The public ministry is not applying the law that the law and the institution itself recognize for the victims. The 14 crimes have expired, but they want to know the procedure in the face of a traumatic case that has gone unpunished.
The prosecution in Catalonia has denied three victims access to the investigation into the sexual assaults they endured. Both perpetrators were consistently the same individuals, employing identical violence and modus operandi. Together, they committed two waves of sexual assaults during the 1990s in Catalonia. However, only one of them was apprehended and convicted, while never betraying their accomplice.
A year ago, three victims of those assaults – there were at least 16, four of them minors – requested the Prosecutor's Office of that community to expand the DNA analyses to attempt to identify the accomplice. The prosecution opened preliminary investigation proceedings. The analyses broadened and a genetic profile of the second perpetrator was obtained, but since the crimes have expired, the chief prosecutor, Francisco Bañeres, dismissed the proceedings on July 27th.
Despite the dismissal document explicitly recognizing "the legitimate interest" of the three women to know the truth, in practice there has been no action.
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