Mónica Oltra presenting her resignation at Compromís headquarters on June 21 Jorge Gil (Europa Press)
Mónica Oltra, former Vice-President of Valencia, former spokeswoman and former Minister for Equality and Politics, will testify on September 19 as an accused of the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse by her ex-husband on a 14-year-old minor in the custody of the Generalitat between 2016 and 2017 The defendant was sentenced to five years in prison in 2021 and is now awaiting the Supreme Court to rule on the appeal he has filed.
As reported by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV), Oltra is due to testify at 9:30 a.m. as part of the trial against her and 13 other people investigated by the management of the Council of Abuse Cases. Of those under investigation, 12 are officials or positions in the department that Oltra headed from 2015 until June 21, when he resigned from all his positions.
The summons comes after the case has returned to the 15th Investigatory Court of Valencia, the body that initiated the investigation. During the course of the investigation, last April the judge discovered evidence of a “rational, serious and justified” offense against Oltra, who was then being examined, with which she had to be suspended in favor of the TSJCV, the body responsible for investigating these proceedings.
That court decided to indict Oltra and ordered her to testify on July 6, as it saw “a number of plural references” that led to suspicions that an agreement may exist between the former vice president and various officials to “to protect their former partner or their then partner political career of the outlaw”.
However, 15 days earlier, the former vice president decided to resign from her posts, which is why she lost the opinion. In this way, the case has returned to the original court.
Specifically, this case is about the alleged cover-up of the sexual abuse that a 14-year-old minor suffered in an emergency shelter by Oltra’s ex-husband between 2016 and 2017. The governess was sentenced to five years imprisonment in a resolution ratified by the TSJCV.
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After the sentencing, the young woman, now 19, denounced the situation she found herself in while the case was being handled and a new inquest was opened by the court. Mónica Oltra has always denounced being persecuted by the extreme right. The minor’s lawyer is the leader of the far-right Spain 2000 party, and ultra-activist and former Vox founder Cristina Seguí has also appeared in the complaint.
With the announcement of September 19th as the date for his testimony, an unknown is clarified, but not Oltra’s political future. At its inception, Compromís did not rule out the former vice president as a possible list leader in the next regional election in 2023, and some even backed her directly, confident that she said her charge would soon be overturned. Even his deputy in the vice presidency and on the council, Aitana Mas, a person of Oltra’s absolute trust, has come to state that in this case he will step down from his posts to be returned to the left leader. But he has kept the alleged charges in their posts. However, procedural times prevent the marking of a fixed calendar.
In addition, the relationship between the main partners of the Government of the Generalitat, the Valencian President, the socialist Ximo Puig, and the former vice-president of Compromís has deteriorated after the former had pressured the latter to resign, even declaring through third parties his intention to oblige them remove if not. In fact, Oltra attributed her decision to resign to this pressure and the convenience of continuing compromises in government. When she left, she was particularly critical of the socialists.