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A Spanish court ruled that a doctor had stolen a newborn nearly five decades ago, one of many kidnapped during the dictatorship in Spain in the twentieth century. But the released because the statute of limitations had expired. (AP Photo / Manu Fernandez)
An 85-year-old Spanish gynecologist was responsible for the theft of a newborn nearly 50 years ago – but he will not be sentenced because the statute of limitations has expired, a court said Monday.
The Madrid court stated that Eduardo Vela was responsible for the kidnapping of Ines Madrigal in 1969 and the falsification of official documents before the newborn was handed over to his adoptive parents. This is the first verdict on the large-scale child trafficking that took place during the twentieth century dictatorship in Spain under General Francisco Franco.
However, Vela, the director of a Madrilenian clinic considered the focus of the scandal, was acquitted of all charges, Madrigal having filed no complaint against her in 2012, more than 10 years after her legal age. and his past. limitation period for the charge of kidnapping.
Vela, who was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, denied all allegations during the trial.
Madrigal, who learned at 18 that she was not living with her biological parents, argued that she could not have filed her complaint earlier against Vela because she did not learn about the existence of this project that in 2010, when his adoptive mother informed him.
DNA tests confirmed the account. The biological parents of Madrigal have never been found.
Madrigal, now 49, said the verdict was "bitter-sweet" and that she would appeal the country's Supreme Court.
"I am happy because the judges recognize that there was robbery, that my mother was removed, but I did not think they would stop condemning it", she told the press, adding that "the judges should have been brave."
Franco's right-wing regime ran a campaign to kidnap children from poor families, political prisoners or foes, sometimes abducting women from their newborns by lying them and claiming that they had died during labor. The children were then entrusted to Francophone families or to the church, who educated them to the ideology of the regime and to Roman Catholicism.
Madrigal was the only case of "stolen babies" – as it is called in Spain – who reached the stage of the trial. Most of the lawsuits have been dismissed in the past in the past for coming after the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Spain only began investigating "stolen babies" cases a decade ago when National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon opened an investigation into more than 30,000 children in the regime.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
