BFF-39 Spain trial over ‘stolen babies’ resumes

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Spain trial over ‘stolen babies’ resumes

MADRID, Sept 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s first trial linked to thousands of
suspected cases of babies stolen from their mothers during the Franco era
resumed at a Madrid court on Tuesday, decades after the scandal broke.

Eduardo Vela, 85, a former gynaecologist at the now-defunct San Ramon
clinic in Madrid, is accused of having in 1969 taken Ines Madrigal, now aged
49, from her biological mother and given her to another woman, who then
raised her and was falsely certified as her birth mother.

“It’s an important day. We hope the trial will wrap up today and enter the
sentencing phase,” Madrigal told reporters as she arrived at the court.

Activists say hundreds of similar cases dating back to the right-wing
dictatorship of 1939 to 1975 have failed to make it to court in Spain because
of a lack of evidence or because the time limit to file charges has passed.

In a dark and often overlooked chapter of General Francisco Franco’s
dictatorship, the newborns of some left-wing opponents of the regime, as well
as of unmarried or poor couples, were removed from their mothers and adopted.
New mothers were frequently told their babies had died suddenly within hours
of birth and the hospital had taken care of their burials, but in fact they
were given or sold to another family.

Baby stealing began in the 1950s after Franco came to power following the
1936-39 civil war pitting left-wing Republicans against conservative
Nationalists loyal to the general. It was part of an effort to purge Spain of
Marxist influence.

It was expanded to take newborns from poor families as well as illegitimate
babies.

– More culprits –

Enrique Vila, a lawyer who has written extensively about the “stolen
babies” scandal, said Vela’s trial could provide “moral” encouragement for
other victims to bring forward lawsuits.

“There are dozens of doctors and nuns across Spain who are guilty” and who
are still alive, he told AFP.

During questioning in the opening session of the trial on June 26, Vela
said he could not remember details of how the clinic, which he ran for 20
years up to 1982 and is believed to have been a centre for baby trafficking,
operated and that the signature on Madrigal’s birth certificate was not his.

Vela — the first person prosecuted over the “stolen babies” scandal which
broke in the media in the 1980s — was due to return to the witness stand the
following day but instead he went to hospital after falling ill. He arrived
at the court on Tuesday in a wheelchair.

No date has been given for when a verdict will be handed down although
Madrigal’s lawyer, Guillermo Pena, said it could come within a month.

“After today we could have a sentence with proven facts. Up until now we
have only had accusations,” he added.

– French journalist testimony –

Aside from Vela, six other people are scheduled to testify, including a
journalist with French public television station France 2 who used a hidden
camera to record Vela as he appeared to confess to having given Madrigal away
as a “gift”. She will answer questions by video conference, according to a
court source.

Prosecutors are seeking an 11-year jail sentence for falsifying official
documents, illegal adoption, unlawful detention and certifying a non-existent
birth.

The baby theft system outlived Franco’s death in 1975 and carried on as an
illegal baby trafficking network until 1987 when a new law that regulated
adoption more tightly was introduced.

Campaigners estimate tens of thousands of babies may have been stolen from
their parents over the decades.

The cases echo events that took place during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military
dictatorship. Courts there have since handed down lengthy jail terms for the
systematic theft of babies from political prisoners.

BSS/AFP/RY/1512 hrs