A Barcelona court addresses a complaint of sexual abuse against a district councilor of Junts in Ciutat Vellafiled by a party partner in Barcelona. The events date back to June 2021when the then councilor of the same territory Maria Chacón would have suffered touching without consent by the accused, Alex Román, then a member without municipal office, upon returning from an event that they had both attended as representatives of the formation.
She declared this Tuesday in court number 20 of Barcelona, while He is scheduled for December 21, according to the newspaper TOT Barcelona and confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO by sources from the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TJSC). The complaint, the same source clarifies, occurred a month ago and is for the crime of sexual abuse because that is how the acts charged were qualified in the law in force in 2021. That is, before what is known as the ‘yes is yes law’, that increases the penalties for abuse. The complaint accuses Román of “touchings above theft carried out on a specific day” and there is no “hierarchical superiority” between them, details the TSJC.
According to TOT Barcelona, Román would have touched Chacón’s genitals taking advantage of a moment of distraction in which she was talking on the phone and when reproaching her for her behavior, he would have given her three strong blows on the ass. The episode occurred in the middle of the street and with the current councilor of Ciutat Vella in an alleged state of drunkenness. The complainant would have two witnesses to the situation, with whom he was speaking on the phone and by video call.
Two years of knowledge of the party
Before going to court, Chacón approached the case through the internal party channels for two years, without obtaining a satisfactory response. Sources from the party headed by Xavier Trias in the council declare to EL PERIÓDICO that “the management of the municipal group was made aware of the incident between its municipal councilor in Ciutat Vella and a party member in this” territorial “group through the councillor’s own mouth.” . Junts defends that “from the first moment the municipal group gave her full support and encouraged her to file a complaint”, through which she initially declined to pursue the case.
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In November 2022 Chacón left office. “Voluntarily,” the party emphasizes. That same month he filed a complaint against Román “before the Junts per Catalunya Guarantees Commission, which decided to definitively archive the case” after exactly one year. Already as a former counselor, on September 26, 2023, she formalized the complaint before the Mossos d’Esquadra, which has led to the statements of both before the court.
Although the Guarantees Commission had not yet closed the procedure, this September 2023 the accused militant assumed the position of municipal councilor of Ciutat Vella representing the group Junts per Catalunya – Trias per Barcelona. Party spokespersons point out that if there is “a judicial decision that confirms the investigation of the incident for sexual abuse, in compliance with the party’s Code of Ethics, the municipal group will ask the councilor to put his position at the disposal of the management or force his dismissal.” “.