The prosecutors in the Guardia Urbana crime and the Alves case will investigate UB professor Ramon Flecha

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Prosecutor's Office has entrusted the new unit for crimes against vulnerable groups, where the prosecutors handling the Guardia Urbana crime and the Dani Alves case work, with opening an investigation following complaints against Ramon Flecha, emeritus professor at the University of Barcelona. This decision comes after the university launched an internal investigation following complaints of sexual harassment, psychological coercion, mistreatment, and exploitation linked to the professor and his research group, CREA. will send a preliminary report to the Prosecutor's OfficeAccording to a statement released by the Barcelona Provincial Prosecutor's Office, the unit investigating the case is the "Specialized Section for Violent Crimes against Children and Adolescents, as well as other vulnerable groups and complex criminal profiles." Prosecutors Félix Martín and Elisabeth Jiménez work in this section, as has been reported. The Vanguard And ARA has been able to confirm this. Martín is president of the Progressive Union of Prosecutors and has handled high-profile cases such as the Urban Guard murder case, in which the municipal police officers Rosa Peral and Albert López received a resounding sentence for the murder of a colleague. Jiménez brought the sexual assault complaint against footballer Dani Alves, who was initially convicted, although the High Court of Justice of Catalonia overturned the conviction. He ended up overturning the sentenceThe section specializing in crimes against vulnerable groups will work with a team from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), including members of the Sexual Assault Unit and agents from the Central Area of ​​Analysis and Intelligence Development, who have experience investigating cult-like organizations. The University of Barcelona sent the information it had gathered to the Public Prosecutor's Office even though its internal investigation was not yet complete. However, the preliminary report already pointed to the existence of a "high-control coercive group." Specifically, sixteen people had reported the group for having sexual relations "in a context of clear hierarchical inequality" with "students, interns, doctoral candidates, or subordinates." Furthermore, the UB also He provisionally suspended emeritus professor Ramon Flecha from his dutiesAnother honorary professor and two other professors he did not identify. He announced that he would join the case as a private prosecutor if the Public Prosecutor's Office ultimately decides to file a complaint or lawsuit.

CREA already reacted to the UB's announcement that it would send the case to the Public Prosecutor's Office by recalling that the UB had already sent two internal complaints against it to the Public Prosecutor's Office in 2004 and 2016, and that these were dismissed at the time. The group is confident that the same will happen again, because it claims to have "abundant documents that would prove the falsity of the statements made by the anonymous accusers." However, regarding the complaints of 2004 and 2016, this time there is a key difference: the previous complaints were against alleged cult-like behavior by the group, and this time they are for the sexual relationships that Flecha allegedly had with students, interns, and female employees under his supervision.