The Provincial Court of Zaragoza has considered that there is a risk that the director of the Ateca juvenile center could escape if he is released from prison. In this way, the magistrates of the third chamber have rejected the appeal of the director of the Ateca center and the NGO that requested his freedom, so that he will continue in the Zuera prison, with the four other workers.
The director of the Ateca juvenile center, Ivan Rodriguezhad filed the appeal to request freedom after the investigating judge, Aida Ramirezwill send him to provisional prison without bail on August 2 for having evidence of possible crimes against moral integrity, torture, injuries and membership in a criminal group.
However, the magistrates of the third section of the Provincial Court have dismissed the appeal, and Iván Rodríguez will remain in prison. With this, the Court once again supports the judge’s determination, given that this Monday the magistrates have also rejected the appeal of another of the imprisoned workers, considering that there is sufficient evidence to have made this decision, given that the punitive pressure they face is serious enough (about 14 minimum years of prison).
The NGO supports the director
Although, what is striking about the appeal presented by the director of the Ateca center in prison is that both the Health and Community Foundation such as the Lagunduz Comprehensive Assistance Association, are supporting him throughout this process, by adhering to the appeal presented by the lawyer handling the case, to try to get him out of jail. Well, it must be taken into account that Iván Rodríguez was the person who had been in charge of the management of the juvenile center for a year, when he took over. Daniel Urbina.
The scandal that surrounds this foundation is very serious, given that several minor inmates have declared before the judge that they suffered mistreatment and humiliation in the center of Ateca, and that they were forced to practice sex games between the minors and the menas who were interned.
In addition, at least one sexual assault on a minor under 16 years of age has been reported so far, by two menas in which one of the workers would be present as an accomplice. A fact that the former supervisor of the center, Miguel Ángel VP, who is also accused of being a “necessary collaborator,” was also supposedly aware of.
However, during all this time none of these companies that managed the supposed therapeutic center for minors with behavioral problems (and which continue to manage dozens of social centers throughout Spain), have not made a single public statement in this regard. And the Government of Aragon has broken all the contracts it had with the Health and Community Foundation to which it paid 1.2 million euros per year for the services arranged with the Aragonese Institute of Social Services.
The director of the Ateca center in prison
One of the reasons supported by the director’s defense to request immediate release was that “it was not clearly understood” what the representative of the director had said. Fiscal Ministry at the hearing, for which they requested annulment.
However, in the dismissal order, which OKDIARIO has had access to, the magistrates consider that although “what the representative of the Prosecutor’s Office says is not well understood”, “those present at the event understood it correctly since no observations were made to the respect at that time. They maintain that the lawyer who now signs the appeal “is the same as in that appearance,” and that “he said nothing about the quality of the recording or to what extent his right to defense could be affected for this reason.”
More testimonies from minors
Likewise, the magistrates have not considered the allegation of the director’s lawyer that, at the time of decreeing the provisional detention, “there were only the statements of two minors.” In this regard, the Zaragoza Court warns that “they are going to accumulate complaints filed by minors admitted to the center for events in which the people investigated will be involved to a greater or lesser extent.
Furthermore, the magistrates consider that the judge took into account the testimony of a minor, highlighting “the delay in taking her to the doctor”, concluding that the director “had seriously failed to comply its role as guarantor and that he had, in this way, intervened in the commission of crimes that he describes as crimes against moral integrity, torture, injuries in assault, sexual assault against a minor under 16 years of age and membership in a criminal group.
The director could escape
Regarding the risk of flight, the lawyer, in the appeal he presented, complained that the objective of avoiding the risk of flight by sending him to prison is not such. However, the magistrates, as in the case of the other Moroccan worker who appealed against provisional detention, do see “risk of escape“, given that “it must be taken into account that the facts that are charged and have been indicated above are serious and have penalties in line with their seriousness, something of special importance to assess this risk,” they explain in the order.
“This is a considerable penalty,” they add, referring to the minimum “fourteen years» those he faces for the crimes charged. They also consider that there is “possibility of attacking the legal rights of the victims.”
“We must keep in mind that these are minors, who have a double vulnerability due to the fact that they are minors, whose personal circumstances led them to reside in a center with special characteristics like the one in question. To this must be added that the victims are still in a phase of determination and that they are people perfectly known and identifiable by the appellant,” they conclude.
