The Provincial Court of Barcelona has sentenced Yago Zarroca to three years in prison and Màrius Montmany and Oriol Hernández to two years each as those responsible for the organization Yes We Help for a crime of aggravated fraud. Although the sentence is not final, the Chamber considers it proven that the alleged NGO of “international volunteering” was actually seeking to recruit and deceive hundreds of teenagers under the promise of participating in humanitarian projects in Ghana and Sri Lanka.
The three convicted must also compensate the complainants financially.
It was in 2018 when La Vanguardia uncovered the case, which affected dozens of teenagers — among them, Tana Rivera, the daughter of Fran Rivera and Eugenia Martínez de Irujo. In July of that year, a group of volunteers deceived by Yes We Help saw three men with guns and handcuffs break into the residence where they were staying in Ghana. Many of them hid and tried to flee, but at least one of them was captured and assaulted by the attackers.
The Spanish Embassy intervened to bring the teenagers, some minors, to Spain after their residence was raided by armed men
Zarroca defended himself in 2018 denying being responsible for Yes We Help, and claiming that the men who broke into the residence were police officers whose mission was to “increase security to look after the well-being of the volunteers.” A statement that was denied by the head of the local police to the Spanish Embassy, who described the attackers as “thugs.”
The Spanish embassy in Ghana and the country’s authorities facilitated the transfer of the deceived young volunteers, some of whom were minors, for their return to Spain.
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Eight years later, the magistrates’ conclusion is that the accused took advantage of the rise of solidarity volunteering to recruit young people under the appearance of being an NGO. The cost of the experience was 850 euros, excluding flights, for the promise of participating in humanitarian aid projects. These projects either did not exist or did not correspond to reality or were supposed to be carried out in hospitals or schools with which there was neither agreement nor notice.
For Ingrid Sagué, lawyer at Sagué Abogados Penalistas who has represented 93 of the more than a hundred plaintiffs, the sentence, although not final, “is satisfactory.” “It is very well founded — she adds — everything that was presented at trial is exposed and proven.” Sagué recalls that in the experience of the 13 trial sessions (which ended a year ago, although the sentence has been recently known), the victims showed “that they were still affected. Some cried… Justice has been done.”
The three convicted (Yago Zarroca, Màrius Montmany, and Oriol Hernández) have been convicted of the crime of aggravated fraud. The Provincial Court dismissed the complaint for child abandonment since, judicially, the crime should have been reported and tried in the country where the abandonment occurred.
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