The judicial ordeal of Mónica Oltra

ValenciaAlthough she left the political frontline some time ago, Mónica Oltra's legal ordeal continues. Everything is ready for the oral trial. The case—still undated—against the former vice president of the Valencian government and fourteen other people, most of them former senior officials in the Ministry of Equality and Inclusive Policies. They are accused of covering up the sexual abuse suffered by a minor under the care of the Valencian Government and committed by Luis Eduardo Ramírez, the ex-husband of the Compromís leader.

The case that forced the resignation of the man who was the main thorn in the side of the Valencian right dates back to 2016, when Ramírez was a teacher at a private foster home and abused a minor. After an initial trial, he was convicted in 2019. However, the proceedings were annulled because the court failed to consider two reports that cast doubt on the credibility of the victim's witness. In March 2021, the trial was repeated, and a five-year prison sentence was set for the attacker. Subsequently, the Superior Court of Justice of Valencia (TSJPV) confirmed the sentence, which was later ratified by the Supreme Court.

Ramírez's conviction did not mean the end of the case, as the Gobiérnate association, led by the far-right journalist and former Vox leader Cristina Seguí, used it to file a complaint against Oltra and the actions of her department. Although the judge initially dismissed the complaint, the fourth section of the Provincial Court of Valencia—at the request of the minor's defense, led by lawyer José Luis Roberto, leader of the far-right party España 2000—finally ordered its reopening to investigate the alleged failure of the department to fulfill its duty of custody and protection in preparing the internal report that discredited the victim's version.

The great political earthquake occurred on June 16, 2022, when the TSJPV agreed Oltra's indictmentThe Valencian politician could only withstand the pressure from the media, her party and her partners in the Generalitat – especially the PSPV – for six days and resigned. Then came the his statement on September 19 and joy, when on April 3 of last year Judge Vicente Ríos filed the investigation -it was the second time she had done so- considering that it had not been proven, "not even in the scope of the evidence," that the Valencian politician or any manager of the regional ministry had given any order "aimed at concealing" Ramírez's abuse "or at discrediting the minor when the final quarter of water section A arrived. Valencia ordered the case to be reopened. The decision was now irreversible and led to the holding of the oral trial, as confirmed this week.

Beyond the key moments, it's also worth looking at the key players in the case. Among its proponents is Vox, which is acting as a private prosecutor along with Cristina Seguí's Gobiérnate association and the far-right lawyer José Luis Roberto. In the judicial sphere, we find judges Pedro Castellano, Macarena Amparo Mira Picó, and Isabel Sifres, who make up the now-famous Fourth Chamber. A court that is criticized for accumulating rulings favorable to the Popular Party, such asthe filing of the alleged illegal financing of the municipal groupled by Rita Barberá and the case against former president Francisco Campsfor the organization of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Valencia. The same room alsoacquitted the eighteen defendantsbelonging to the neo-Nazi group Anti-System Front in 2005 in the so-called Operation Panzer. On the contrary, it will sentence former Valencian President Eduardo Zaplana to ten and a half years in prison for the collection of commissions in exchange for contracts awarded by the Generalitat.