“Zero tolerance, my hand will not shake.” These were the words of the mayoress of Teruel, the popular Emma Buj, when announcing on February 20 the dismissal of her Sports Councilor, Carlos Aranda, after he was arrested hours before as the alleged perpetrator of a sexual assault on a young man. during a night out.
However, just over three months later, the Provincial Court of Teruel has upheld the appeal filed by the exedil and has agreed to the revocation of the order issued by the Teruel Investigating Court number 3 and the provisional dismissal of the case.
Aranda, who until the complaint was a member of Ciudadanos, was being investigated as the possible perpetrator of a crime of sexual assault for unwanted touching of a 21-year-old young man in the capital Teruel on the night of February 19 of this year, in which the city celebrated one of its big parties, the recreation of the Wedding of Isabel de Segura.
According to the complaint, the events had taken place at Aranda’s home, which the young man accessed at dawn from Saturday to Sunday after having previously met the mayor to go out for drinks.
According to his testimony, it was there that the unwanted touching took place, which he immediately denounced at a provincial National Police station after, according to his version, he fled the house taking advantage of an oversight of the then public office.
In the order made public this Friday, the provincial court points out the notable differences that can be seen between the statement that the young man made then at the police headquarters and those made later at the judicial headquarters. Given the divergence between the two accounts, the magistrates warn that “neither during the journey nor later at home, did the injured party show with gestures or words that he did not consent to such acts or that this type of contact made him uncomfortable.”
They also add that, in the presence of the investigating judge, the complainant stated that “there was no aggression nor did he push him against the bed”, which corroborates the fact that no type of injury was observed in the medical examination carried out on the young man. after reporting the facts.
Likewise, in the opinion of the togadas, it does not follow that there was any deception on the part of the person under investigation or that the alcoholic affectation in which the injured party stated that he was found was of sufficient intensity to annul his will. Something, they say, that neither the police officers who spoke to him at first nor the medical personnel who treated him at the hospital a little later recorded.
Therefore, the court concludes that in the proceedings carried out “the existence of rational indications of criminality in the conduct of the investigated is not verified” enough to open the trial phase, and therefore they uphold their appeal and agree to the provisional dismissal of the case. cause.
At the time the case was made public, Aranda, 36, maintained his innocence and assured that “the best way” to defend his honor and face the judicial process was to do it “outside the institution and the municipal group de Ciudadanosâ€, now disappeared from the Consistory after being swept away at the polls.
