Two women have reported Julio Iglesias to the National Court Prosecutor’s Office for human trafficking and sexual assault. The complaint, which elDiario.es has accessed, refers to events that occurred in 2021 that could constitute “trafficking in human beings for the purposes of imposing forced labor and servitude” along with “several crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity such as sexual harassment and sexual assault”, as well as injuries and various crimes against workers’ rights “due to the imposition of abusive working conditions.” The complaint names Iglesias as the main perpetrator of the events, but includes two people in charge of the singer’s homes in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas as collaborators. Iglesias’ Spanish nationality allows him to be denounced in Spain, even if the conduct attributed to him occurred in third countries.
This Tuesday, an exclusive investigation by elDiario.es in collaboration with Univision revealed the testimony of two former employees of Julio Iglesias who report having suffered sexual assaults in an environment of continuous control and intimidation while they worked for the singer in 2021. It is these two women who have gone to the Spanish justice system to report the events. The former workers said that the singer pressured them to have sexual encounters and described penetrations, touching, slaps, and physical and verbal harassment. According to their stories, they received insults and humiliation during their work day.
Two of the singer’s former employees have filed a complaint with the National Court Prosecutor’s Office with the support of the international organization Women’s Link Worldwide. They do so due to events that occurred between January and October 2021 at the residences that Iglesias has in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. The two women, Laura and Rebeca (fictitious names chosen to protect their identity), assure elDiario.es that they are going to court in search of justice for themselves and the rest of the women who worked in the villas. In statements to elDiario.es, Rebeca affirms that her complaint seeks “to ensure that everything he did there does not go unpunished”, but also seeks “to ensure that he does not continue doing what he does, that he knows that it has a consequence.”
For her part, Laura wants her complaint to serve to send a message “to all the victims of this person so that they speak and believe in justice, that they understand that it was not something that happened only to them.”
Protective measures
In the letter to the Prosecutor’s Office, the lawyers request that the identity of the women be protected due to their situation of “special socioeconomic vulnerability” and the position of influence and power of Iglesias and his “considerable capacity to undertake retaliation and intimidate them.” Women, they say, “fear for their integrity, their privacy, their safety and their emotional stability if their identity is revealed.”
That is why the organization has requested “urgent protection measures for the victims” from the Prosecutor’s Office. In addition to protecting their identity and that of their families, Women’s Link Worldwide requests that contact be avoided between women and their loved ones, on the one hand, “and the suspects” of the violation, on the other. The complainants, they say, fear “external pressure or approaches motivated by possible threats aimed at making them desist” from their actions.
The legal actions that Women’s Link accompanies seek for the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court of Spain to grant protection measures for Rebeca and Laura immediately, and at the same time, promote justice with a feminist approach that recognizes the structural damage caused by racism, colonialism and machismo in the field of domestic work.
elDiario.es and Univision have tried to obtain Julio Iglesias’ version on several occasions and through various means of contact in recent weeks, but they have not received a response to any of the questions sent or any comments. The same has happened with one of the two in charge of the singer’s mansions. Another of them has not responded to the questions, but has indicated that she has “nothing to say about these accusations.”
Crimes against sexual freedom and human trafficking
In the complaint, the lawyers argue that the facts would fit into “a crime of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of imposing forced labor or services and servitude with aggravating circumstances of a criminal group and danger to the integrity of the complainants.” “You can see the elements that make up the crime of trafficking: the typical behavior (recruitment, transfer, accommodation in the employer’s home, aggravating the isolation, and exploitation), the commissive means (objective elements, such as deception and abuse of a situation of vulnerability) and the purpose pursued (subjective element),” they explain.
Julio Iglesias is identified as the main author of this crime, but the existence of two managers who collaborated with him to recruit the workers and impose the conditions in which they lived and worked in the houses makes the lawyers speak of a “criminal group.” “The participation of those accused must be understood within the framework of a joint and concerted action, with a functional distribution of tasks within a criminal organization oriented to trafficking,” they argue.
The complaint also ensures that Julio Iglesias could have committed several crimes against the sexual freedom of these two women, according to the 2021 Penal Code, that is, before the sexual freedom law that eliminated the distinction between abuse and sexual assault. With that Penal Code in hand, the lawyers believe that the events could constitute several sexual assaults, which then required the presence of violence or intimidation. This intimidation could also be environmental, that is, a situation that generates an atmosphere of fear or coercion that conditions the freedom of the subject who suffers it without there being a direct threat or explicit intimidation. This concept, that of environmental intimidation, was used, for example, in the case of ‘the pack’, and also appears in this case.
One of the women reports various sexual assaults, with and without penetration, “in a context of environmental intimidation, reinforced by the presence of two hierarchical superiors in the room, which increases psychological coercion and the feeling of impossibility of offering resistance.” In the case of the other woman, the lawyers identify a crime of sexual assault “using the superiority of the accused.”
Women’s Link Worldwide asks the Prosecutor’s Office to take into account possible aggravating factors, such as violence and intimidation that is “particularly degrading and humiliating”, which takes into account the special vulnerability of the victims, the superior position of the accused or the participation of several perpetrators.
Harassment and injuries
The lawyers describe conduct that would have taken place since the beginning of the employment relationship, “with behavior that could constitute systematic sexual harassment towards both complainants, including proposals for sexual favors, as well as humiliating comments of a sexual nature.” In this case, they suggest the so-called aggravating circumstance of prevalence due to the hierarchical superiority that the singer had over his employees, that is, for taking advantage of an advantageous or superior situation.
Added to this are two possible crimes of injury against one of the women: “The accused allegedly held her tightly by the hair and shook her in the presence of other workers. Likewise, according to her story, non-consensual acts of a sexual nature would have taken place, perceived as especially violent, which would have caused visible physical injuries, such as bruises and bites.”
The complaint identifies facts that could constitute several crimes against workers’ rights, “due to the alleged repeated violation of labor and social security regulations, to the detriment of the complainants”, such as the absence of a contract, “the imposition of irregular working conditions”, the lack of breaks or “situations that would have affected the privacy and dignity” of the women. In the case of one of the former workers, they add a possible crime for recruiting her without having the appropriate work permit.
“The conduct of the accused towards the complainants, shouting, mistreatment, humiliation or psychological pressure, often in front of other workers, could be considered a form of intimidation and violence,” they say.
The complaint includes the two women’s account of events and a detailed description of the personal and social conditions in which they found themselves. Also an analysis of the context of the countries from which they come to prove their “vulnerability conditions.” “This context is relevant to understand the power relationship and asymmetry between the accused and the complainants, as well as the economic dependence that they had on the salary they received,” the text says.
If you have experienced or are aware of an event similar to those reported here, we want to hear from you. Send us a text or voice message via Whatsapp to the number +34 646 35 35 34 or write us an email to [email protected]. We will treat your testimony with absolute confidentiality.
Data verification and editing: María Ramírez and Natalia Chientaroli
You can read more about this research at our special
If you have experienced or are aware of an event similar to those reported here, we want to hear from you. Send us a text or voice message via Whatsapp to the number +34 646 35 35 34 or write us an email to [email protected]. We will treat your testimony with absolute confidentiality.
Source: www.eldiario.es
