Mónica Oltra holds the status of accused, typical of the intermediate phase preceding the opening of the oral trial. Thus, once the instructor’s order was issued rejecting the appeals of several defenses, the former Valencian vice-president found himself on the edge of the bench. Oltra faces the oral trial without magistrate Vicente Ríos nor prosecutor Jaime Cussac seeing solid evidence of an alleged cover-up by the leader of Compromís of the abuse of a minor under guardianship for which her ex-husband was convicted in a final sentence.
A lack of evidence that strengthens the defense strategy of Mónica Oltra and the rest of the accused and that supports Compromís’ thesis, according to which the legal procedure is part of an alleged case of “lawfare” (the use of justice to attack political opponents). A term which, in the heat of various legal cases, notably that relating to Begoña Gómez, wife of President Pedro Sánchez, has become popular in the arguments of the Spanish left.
The investigator provisionally closed the case on April 2 because “the commission of any crime” by those investigated was not justified. However, the fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia, presided over by the conservative magistrate Pedro Castellano, revoked the file and forced the judge to finalize the investigation, which the magistrate dictated in an order emphasizing that it was ” by legal imperative”.
The prosecutor, in his report on the parties’ allegations, recognizes that this is a “relatively unusual” situation and places responsibility before the fourth section of the Valencia Court and in his decision to dismiss “without further delay” the dismissal of the case. The representative of the Public Ministry recalls that the decision to dismiss the matter was “rejected by the Superior”, in reference – with an official capital letter – to the fourth article.
The prosecutor’s report understands that the decision of the Valencia court refers exclusively to facts for which no one appears as an investigator: the transport of the minor under guardianship – handcuffed by the regional police despite her victim status – to the trial of the ex-Oltra. -husband, in which he was convicted of sexual abuse. This is an “episode for which no one has acquired the procedural status of investigation”, he recalls.
On the other hand, the representative of the Public Ministry also slips in other clues which suggest a trial with little accusatory charge. Thus, the prosecutor’s brief alludes to the “tacit but unequivocal assumption” by the Valencia court of the factual account of the meticulous archiving order, in which the instructor categorically concluded that there was no evidence .
In short, the prosecutor rejects the defense’s appeals, which requested a second dismissal, because it is a “judicial impossibility”. That is to say a dead end for the instructor who, even if he sees no sign of crime, is obliged by “superiority” to move forward. “Such reasoning can only be accepted,” replied the investigating judge in the order issued this Thursday.
A cause with political consequences
The particular ups and downs of this affair have a notable echo within the Valencian left. Oltra resigned from her position as Vice President and Minister of Equality of the Generalitat Valenciana on June 21, 2022, after her indictment by the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJ-CV).
After losing the certified status, the case returned to the hands of the president of the investigating court number 15 of Valencia. The Pacte del Botànic lived its last year at the head of the Regional Executive without one of its most important figures. Furthermore, with the resignation of Mónica Oltra, Compromís was decapitated in the elections won by the popular Carlos Mazón and his Vox partners.
The provisional dismissal of the case, almost six months ago, briefly opened the door to a possible return of Oltra to the political front.
The Compromís leader was seen more frequently on these dates at public events, in a context where members, supporters and executives celebrated the long-awaited political resurrection of the one who had been the undisputed leader of the coalition since its creation.
After the controversial decision of the Fourth Section of the Valencia Court, Mónica Oltra returned to a new phase of hibernation of her public profile to concentrate on the practice of law. Oltra knows the rather slow times of Spanish justice.
