A Spanish court on Monday found an 85-year-old doctor guilty of stealing a baby from her mother, but ruled that the statute of limitations prevented him from being punished.
The Madrid court found that gynecologist Eduardo Vela not only abducted Ines Madrigal in 1969, but also forged her birth certificate and falsified other official documents. Vela's actions went unpunished because Madrigal, who became an adult in 1987, failed to bring her case to court within 10 years.
"I have a sweet and sour feeling. Obviously, I am happy because they recognize that Vela did all he did. But I didn't think the judges were going to accept the argument of the statute of limitations. Because I was not aware until 2010 that in Spain there was a network that stole and sold babies at a national level," Madrigal told reporters following the court's ruling, according to CNN.
Madrigal is only one of the thousands of people suspected of being abducted and illegally adopted as a baby. Many babies were reportedly abducted while fascist General Francisco Franco ruled the country from 1939 to 1975. Doctors reportedly took babies from Republican mothers and gave or sold them to those deemed more deserving by the regime.
Despite the court's ruling, Madrigal and her lawyer said that they plan on taking the case to the country's Supreme Court.
"We are really disappointed—it's like being slapped in the face. We need to change the laws so there would be no statute of limitations for these crimes," Cristina, a woman who gave birth in 1984 and is looking for her child, told the BBC following the ruling.
Vela, who denies any wrongdoing, was the first person prosecuted in connection with the scandal in June.
"I never gave any baby to anyone," the 85-year-old said at the time, Reuters reported.
A 2008 report made by former judge Baltasar Garzon estimated that the Franco regime abducted around 30,000 babies.
A nun accused of stealing and selling a baby in 1982 appeared in court in 2012. Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena refused to testify before the court and maintained her innocence.
"I was still half asleep when I asked her where my daughter was. She told me: 'Stop asking me that or else I will also take away your other daughter and you will go to jail for adultery,'" Maria Luisa Torres, the mother of the child whom the nun allegedly abducted, said, according to The Telegraph.
The court dropped all the cases against Sister Maria when she died in 2013.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
