A Spanish doctor will go on trial on Tuesday accused of abducting an infant half a century ago in a landmark case that is expected to clarify the so-called “stolen baby” scandal that is believed to have separated thousands of families during the Franco dictatorship and beyond.
Eduardo Vela, a retired gynaecologist, is accused of unlawfully taking a new-born baby girl from her mother in a Madrid clinic in 1969 and of giving her, via the mediation of a priest, to a couple who agreed to pretend they were the biological parents.
The baby girl, Inés Madrigal, grew up without knowing she was adopted. But when she was an adult, her adoptive mother told her what had happened, prompting her to denounce Dr Vela.
The prosecutor is calling for the Madrid court handling the case to give Dr Vela (85) an 11-year prison sentence and a €15,000 fine for illegal detention, certifying a non-existent birth and forging documents.
Dementia
"All of Spain knows what he has done and it doesn't matter what he says, nobody is going to believe him," Ms Madrigal told local media. The court has dismissed Dr Vela's claim that he is unfit to face trial on the grounds that he is suffering from dementia.
Hundreds of similar claims have been brought by people who believe they were taken away from their mothers and given up for adoption, with Dr Vela thought to be involved in many of them.
But lack of evidence or the death of key witnesses prevented those cases from progressing. Campaigners say that there has been a massive cover-up.
Ms Madrigal’s is the only case to reach trial, because it can apparently be proved that her birth certificate was forged and her adoptive mother, who is now dead, co-operated with the investigation. In addition, the doctor involved, Vela, is still alive.
The dictator Francisco Franco ruled the country from the end of the civil war, in 1939, until his death in 1975, and his regime is believed to have encouraged the separation of children of leftist republicans from their mothers in order for them to be raised by families that were sympathetic to his far-right, Catholic ideology.
Spain’s high court calculates that about 20,000 new-born babies were taken from their mothers until 1952. An organisation representing people who believe they are among those affected, SOS Bebés Robados (SOS Stolen Babies), says that the trend continued into the 1990s and that a total of 300,000 babies were unlawfully adopted.
DNA bank
“Without a doubt there are ministers, politicians and other people who we see every day on television who are stolen babies,” said Ms Madrigal, who represents the Murcia branch of the association. “This is never going to be resolved due to the sheer number of those who could be implicated.”
SOS Bebés Robados has brought a private lawsuit against Dr Vela and is calling for him to be given a 13-year jail sentence.
Those affected say that promises by the government and politicians to prioritise the issue by, for example, creating a DNA bank to help identify those separated, have never been fulfilled.
Ms Madrigal and others hope that this week’s trial will prompt Dr Vela to reveal details of other cases, allowing separated families to be reunited.
