Julio Iglesias’ lawyer has asked the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court of Spain to file the pre-trial proceedings, declared secret, in which he is investigating a complaint against the singer for an alleged sexual harassment and assault in 2021 to two female employees in the Dominican Republic and Bahamas, which has caused him “serious reputational damage”.
In a 15-page brief, to which EFE has had access, Iglesias’ lawyer, José Antonio Choclán, considers that the Spanish courts “lack (and by extension the Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court) the jurisdiction to investigate the alleged fact”.
This is justified by the fact that the complainants are not of Spanish nationality nor are they minors, and that the singer has his habitual residence in the Dominican Republic, where the events allegedly took place.
It considers that, in any case, the complaint should have been filed in the Dominican Republic, for which reason the Public Prosecutor’s Office “must declare, without further ado, the lack of Spanish jurisdiction for the knowledge of the facts denounced, immediately filing the pre-trial investigation proceedings initiated and stopping the media campaign that has been launched, with serious reputational damage”.
“There is no doubt that reporting in Spain, as evidenced by the media impact used by the alleged victims, is more favorable to their interests than reporting the event in the place where it was allegedly committed”, criticizes the lawyer, who points out that the organization that has filed the complaint on behalf of the victims, Women’s Link, “has published that Spain has been chosen to ensure greater efficiency in the investigation”.
For Choclán “it is not possible for the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office to attribute to itself the unilateral power to become a Universal Prosecutor, nor for the Spanish courts, nor for the victim to be granted the right to choose the Jurisdiction that is most convenient for him or her”.
The lawyer also claims to be allowed to appear in the investigation of the Prosecutor’s Office to have direct access to the contents of the complaint and thus be able to exercise his defense in the proceedings to be practiced, such as the statement of the complainants, “which according to what is published, we do not know if it is true, has been decided by the Prosecutor’s Office”.
In this way, he adds, it would be possible to prove “the falsity of the accusations and defend the honor of my client” against “the abusive exercise of criminal actions and aggressive media campaigns that lead him to an irremediable natural penalty, outside the process”.
Choclán regrets that his client is aware of the facts attributed to him through the information provided by the complainants in the media, which have echoed the investigation published in eDiario.es (Spain) and in the U.S. channel Univisión.
These publications have caused “reputational damage” to the singer, the lawyer points out.
It also considers that it is not possible to invoke “the need for the confidentiality of information for the protection of an alleged victim” since they have participated “voluntarily in the public dissemination of the complaint”, so that “any claim for protection, even at a general level, against the investigated, must be dismissed”.
In his opinion, “it seems evident that the person against whom the complaint is directed should have the possibility of intervening in the procedure, already in the phase of investigation proceedings of the Prosecutor’s Office, and not to refer him to obtain the information through the media”.
The alleged facts affect a former employee of the singer’s home and a physiotherapist, who have provided work documents, photographs, recordings, WhatsApp messages or call logs to prove the veracity of their accusations, which include sexual assault, harassment and systematic labor humiliation.
Accusations denied by Iglesias, who published a statement on his Instagram profile assuring that he has never “abused, coerced or disrespected any woman,” reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
