Juan Castejón Ardid, former vice-president of the employers’ association of Cartagena and Murcia, saw his sentence suspended for a case of sexual abuse of minors exploited by a network of pimps ten years ago. The court argued that his sentence did not total two years. He has been banned from communicating with his five victims for four years. And behavioral rehabilitation therapy regarding sexuality was imposed on him.
Section 3 of the Murcia Provincial Court has scheduled hearings for Monday and Tuesday in which the defenses of the convicted businessmen – five of them in their aggravated modality for belonging to an association or organization – as well as the pimps will propose alternatives to temporary prison.
Castejón’s lawyer, José María Caballero, focused on the agreement reached on September 11 with the prosecutor’s office, recalling “that on the dates of the agreement there was a consensus for the suspension” and underlined the pressure media. “A punitive populism,” he defined.
The lawyer acknowledged that there are proven facts “of a certain seriousness”, although he said that the recognition of the facts is “a practical question” regarding the agreement.
“Social tsunami”
José María Caballero denounced the fact that the convicts did not take into account the “social tsunami” that occurred after the agreement. The defense lawyer recalled that suspensions and reductions of sentences for very serious crimes are applied daily “without our pulse trembling”.
“This man, with the recognition of the facts, prevented the administration of justice in a procedure at several sessions; “Now is not the time to discuss whether there was a minor vulnerability or whether they just wanted an iPhone.”
The prosecutor opposed the suspension of the sentence and announced his appeal. He had requested 5 years in prison for all the crimes committed, which “deserve criminal reprehensibility”. He defended that suspension is “a power of the court and not a right of the inmate.”
And he maintained that “if Mr. Castejón admitted the facts, it was freely; “The principle of innocence is broken, there is guilt.”
“It is not acceptable that the events of 2014 are judged in 2024, but it is not fair, especially for the victims. If for the accused, as the defense says, it has been a journey through the desert, put yourself in the victims’ shoes. Ten years without legal satisfaction,” he concluded.
