21 months have passed since the resignation of Mónica Oltra as vice president of the Valencian government until justice ruled in her favor, a period during which said executive was defeated at the polls. Although she always proclaimed her innocence, the then leader of Compromís stepped aside in June 2022 due to the strong political pressure exerted on the Botànic, the government chaired by Ximo Puig, for the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse committed by her ex-husband. Luis Eduardo Ramírez, to a minor under guardianship.
The magistrate-judge Vicente Ríos yesterday decreed the file of the case in an order in which he determined that “there is not a single indication that any order or instruction was issued from the management positions of the Ministry aimed at concealing the facts or discredit the minor.”
The provisional file, which can still be appealed, comes after a long investigation in which more than 48,000 emails that Oltra exchanged with his team when he directed the Department of Equality have been examined. The police report provided to the case supports the version that Oltra provided in court.
In her statement, Oltra maintained that she was not aware of the case for which her husband was being investigated until August 4, 2017, and she also did not know that Ramírez had been separated from his duties as a social educator at the Niño Jesús de València juvenile center. , in the period between February 20 and March 12 of that year, after the minor reported the abuse for the first time. According to her statement, her husband – whom she divorced shortly after – told her that he was on vacation.
The head of the investigating court number 15 of Valencia details in the order chronologically the facts proven during the investigation, since the victim suffered continued sexual abuse, between the end of 2016 and 2017, by the educator – facts for which He was sentenced to five years in prison – until 2019, when the Prosecutor’s Office received a report from the Ministry.
The judge considers that all the evidence that supported “the provisional judicial accusations” against the people investigated in this case – Oltra and 15 other senior officials and officials of his department – “have completely vanished once all the necessary procedures aimed at determine the nature and circumstances of the facts investigated.”
Having examined the copious documentation and heard all the parties related to the facts, “there remains no rational indication of criminality against the accused nor, consequently, any basis to issue a resolution of definitive judicial charges against them,” the judge assures.
The magistrate admits that certain behaviors followed by some of those investigated could have been “different from what they were”, but it cannot “derive criminal legal consequences.” Thus, the investigator does not see evidence of a crime of administrative malfeasance nor of abandonment of minors or omission of the duty to prosecute crimes, as appreciated by the accusation.
For the judge, the suspicions expressed in the initial complaint and complaint that there could have been a directive from the then Minister of Equality or any of the senior officials of the Ministry to discredit the victim or cover up the educator “finally do not “They have reached the category of indications of criminality and remain mere suspicions, speculations or conjectures on which a definitive judicial accusation cannot be based.”
The news was received with joy by his Compromís colleagues, some of whom have already expressed their desire for Oltra to return to the political front line. His spokesperson in Congress, Águeda Micó, stated that “he is an exceptional person, a reference for our organization. He is a great politician and will always be what he wants to be within Compromís. He has never left and if he wants to return to the political front line we will wait for him with open arms.”
“We were not wrong,” added Micó, “we did what we had to do because the Compromís political project was above him and he was clear about it,” after emphasizing that this case took its toll on the Botànic Government (PSPV-PSOE, Compromís and Unidas Podemos). Joan Baldoví, ombudsman in Les Corts, wondered who now pays for “all the evil done, the suffering, the insults and the harassment.”
Also the ex-mayor of Valencia Joan Ribó, Aitana Mas, MP for Compromís in Les Corts Valencianes and who replaced Oltra in the Vice-presidency of the Council, or ex-councillors Isaura Navarro and Vicent Marzà had words of support for Oltra.
The current spokesperson for the party in the Valencia City Council, Papi Robles, regretted that the case was archived but not “all the suffering caused” in one of the, in her opinion, “darkest” episodes of instrumentalization of justice. Sumar’s spokesperson in Congress, Íñigo Errejón, also asked to reflect on the “political damage” suffered by the former vice president of the Consell, of whom she highlighted her “dignity.”
The PSPV ombudsman in Les Corts, José Muñoz, also showed his satisfaction with the dismissal of the case against Oltra and demanded that the PP apologize. “Today justice is done with a person who did things correctly and with whom especially the PP has been very belligerent, with very strong demonstrations by leaders who today are on the front line. Today what is needed is an apology for everything what was said,” said Muñoz.
The deputy secretary general of the PSPV-PSOE, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, spoke along similar lines, criticizing the “persecution by the right and especially by the extreme right.”
Asked about this matter, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, expressed his “total respect for the judicial decisions”, and then added: “I have said, I say and I will say that every day that passes without asking Maite for forgiveness, the “A girl who suffered abuse with final sentences and still pending execution, is an act that is not acceptable.”
