Oltra did not delete emails to cover up her ex-husband’s abuse of a minor

Mónica Oltra’s team at the Department of Equality and Inclusive Policies of the Generalitat Valenciana only exchanged emails, in relation to the complaint of abuse against her ex-husband of a minor under guardianship, as of August 8, 2017, days after the former vice president found out about the situation, according to her defense. This is a setback for the accusations, which insinuated that incriminating emails could have been deleted in the Ministry of Equality.

The report of the Provincial Brigade of the Judicial Police of Valencia, commissioned by the investigating judge in the framework of a separate piece of the case, has analyzed an email related to the case of Miquel Real, former chief of staff, and eight of the then adviser ( and, later, CEO) Enric Juan. In addition, there is no email exchanged with the then minister, which confirms the version that Oltra gave before the judge that he delegated to his team the efforts to investigate the facts, with no intention of covering them up.

Oltra’s defense maintains that she found out about the case of her ex-husband’s abuse of a minor in custody on August 4, 2017 and that, from that moment on, she ordered her team to investigate what had happened. The analysis of the emails reveals that the ‘e-mails’ from the former vice president’s team referring to the minor’s case began to be exchanged four days after the date on which, according to Oltra, she learned of her ex-husband’s situation (when he arrived a car to the address that they still shared).

The judge also denies, as argued by the agitator Cristina Seguí, who exercises popular prosecution, that emails had been deleted. Actually, he clarifies, it is a “misunderstanding” referring to the old server of the Generalitat Valenciana of accounts with the domain “@ cv.gva.es” that are no longer used.

In a letter addressed to the judge, the popular accusation indicated that it had received news of the “deletion” by the General Directorate of Information Technologies and Communications of the Generalitat Valenciana of “all email accounts and their contents belonging to the domains “cv.gva.es”, which could affect the research information”.

However, as explained by the instructor in an order, the domain had no relationship with the Ministry of Equality. It was, in fact, a domain “created many years ago to provide email accounts to the public but in no case to the staff at the service of the Consell”.

The chronology of the ‘e-mails’ analyzed by the National Police coincides with that handled by the examining magistrate. The first is sent by advisor Enric Juan on August 8 to Miquel Real, Oltra’s chief of staff. It is an email from the Deputy Director of Childhood and Adolescence, Gemma Plaza, which contains four documents in pdf format: two letters from the Prosecutor’s Office, a communication of incidents to the Public Ministry, the diligence of a psychologist who interviewed the minor and the order that agrees to the restraining order of Oltra’s ex-husband with respect to the minor.

In an email sent on August 10, Gemma Plaza tells the official Amparo Nogués, from the Children’s and Equality Service, that they must collaborate with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. “It is important that you do not forget to answer the Prosecutor’s Office to ALL the questions it raises.” She also adds: “Remember to tell me tomorrow what has been agreed in the commission and what measures the center has adopted to comply with the restraining order” of Oltra’s ex-husband towards the minor under guardianship.

On August 14, Amparo Nogués sent a document to Enric Juan with the subject “Minor Prosecutor” in which he offered him the possibility of “modifying or adding something”. Enric Juan forwards it to the then undersecretary, Francesc Gamero. The document sent to the Prosecutor’s Office explains that the “incident that occurred” in February 2017 (when the minor reported the facts for the first time) was not communicated to the Public Prosecutor’s Office because the Niño Jesús center, after activating the protocols and after an interview with a psychologist, found “no indication” that what the minor was saying “had really happened.” “It was not considered necessary to carry out more actions,” the letter adds. However, it was agreed to transfer the minor, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, to another center in Paterna.

On August 18, the same official sent Enric Juan and Rosa Molero, Director General of Children, a key e-mail for the investigation. In that email it is reported that “the informative file will be investigated, naming an instructor and following the established procedure.” The report on the statements of the minor “concludes that there is no evidence that proves a situation of abuse.”

The investigating judge in the case maintains that it was a parallel investigation by the Ministry of Equality to discredit the version of the minor (he even compares it with a disciplinary file) and that, in no case, the regional department should have acted in parallel to the proceedings of the Public Ministry. After the center did not admit the minor’s story, the young woman again reported her abuse to National Police officers in a chance meeting and the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office opened proceedings.

However, according to Mónica Oltra’s version, she did not find out that her ex-husband had been denounced until a notification arrived at the address they still shared on August 4, 2017. From there, as she declared before the judge, she ordered her team to find out what had happened. Oltra’s ex-husband was sentenced to five years in prison in a sentence pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Errejón, after the report: “All the miserable will not ask for forgiveness”

The leader of Más País, Iñigo Errejón, has celebrated the conclusions of the National Police report. “Little by little justice is done”, he has written in a message on his Twitter profile in which he has also thanked the former vice president of the Valencian Generalitat for her “courage” and for not giving up.

“All the miserable people who slandered and pointed out Mónica Oltra will not ask for forgiveness,” Errejón lamented at the same time.