The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office defended this Thursday its actions in the judicial procedure prior to the murder of a woman at the hands of her husband, last Tuesday in the San Martín district, in the presence of the couple’s two minor children.
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The prosecutors became aware of the case after the complaint filed by the man for alleged episodes of physical violence by the mother towards him and their two children, aged four and eight. Some assaults that the father managed to record and accompany his complaint, at the Mossos de Sant Martín police station, with those images. The harshness and cruelty of the images led to the woman being arrested on July 12 and brought before the court.
Since it involved the integrity of two minors, prosecutors specialized in the protection of vulnerable persons took charge of the case, studied the police report, and viewed the images attached to the complaint. At that time, they requested the court, also specialized, “to adopt a protection order in favor of the minors and measures aimed at enabling a housing alternative for the mother that would preserve the children from a family living situation that was objectively concerning while the judicial investigation continued.”
The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the procedure opened at the beginning of July had a limited procedural purpose: to investigate a complaint filed by the father for alleged episodes of violence by the mother towards the minors and himself. That process, the Prosecutor’s Office insists, did not allow investigating possible situations of gender-based violence nor to rule on facts unrelated to that specific case.
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The prosecutors perceived a risk to the children, the judge rejected the measure, released the woman without alternative measures, and the Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision before the Barcelona Court, which had not yet ruled.
In its statement, the Prosecutor’s Office affirms that its actions were exclusively aimed at protecting the minors and expresses its support to the family of the latest victim, the mother of the minors, murdered by her husband.
The individual did not testify yesterday and this Friday will appear before the court.
