The Navarra Public Prosecutor’s Office has finally decided to appeal the decision of a Tudela judge to dismiss the case related to the alleged “sale” of a 14-year-old girl to a family residing in Catalonia to marry her to their son. This was confirmed by sources from the Supreme Court of Justice of Navarra (TSJN), who indicated that the Public Prosecutor’s Office had appealed the provisional file of the case, decided by the judge after the minor declared that her stay in Catalonia was voluntary. The file led to the release of the five detainees in this case. These are the minor’s parents, residing in Navarra, the couple from Mollerosa (Lleida) accused of “buying” them and their 21-year-old son, with whom she supposedly entered into a forced marriage.
The case became known last Saturday, when the Civil Guard reported the arrest of parents in Navarra accused of “selling” their 14-year-old daughter for 5,000 euros, five bottles of whiskey and food to a Mollerosa couple. The investigation began in January, when local Corella police learned that a Roma couple had sold their 14-year-old daughter to another Molirosa couple for marriage. Months later, the Mossos noticed a minor begging for alms in front of a supermarket in Les Borges Blancs (Lleida). They picked her up and took her to the police station to investigate if she was homeless, forced to ask for money, or if she was a victim of the mafia. There, they went to who she said were her “uncles,” although agents confirmed they had no shared affiliation data with the minor and that there was a search of the government computer system for the teen.
Finally, everyone present at the police station explained that the minor’s parents had provided a “dowry” for Mollerosa’s marriage, consisting of 5,000 euros, whiskey and food, to her supposed “uncles”, so that she could “voluntarily” marry their son. The truth is that the Mossos know and have a copy of the recording of the ceremony held months ago by the Roma community on the occasion of the marriage of the minor and the 21-year-old young man, an engagement that has no legal validity and no official record.
After that, the Catalan police arrested the Catalan couple and their son, accused of crimes of child begging, human trafficking and forced marriage, while the state’s General Directorate of Child Welfare took responsibility for the teenager. For its part, the Navarra Civil Guard arrested the minor’s parents on charges of human trafficking for the purpose of forced marriage. But after giving testimony in the Tudela court, the judge ordered the case to be temporarily closed, considering the minor’s testimony more important than the rest of the evidence. The girl stated that she resides voluntarily and with the consent of her parents in Lleida, and denied that her parents had forced her to marry and practice begging.
About The Author
