Spain:Expect Violence - Taking Away People's Food And Homes.

Published on 20 Jul 2012 by RussiaToday

Police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse angry protesters thronging the streets of Spain. Dozens of people were injured and a number of activists detained during the latest nationwide anti-austerity demonstrations. In a major show of strength, hundreds of thousands have been taking part in the protests. People marched in 80 cities across the country to protest against more suffocating austerity which is to come. That's after the German Parliament gave the green light to the 100-billion Euro bailout for the country's battered banks. The EU's finance ministers are now expected to approve the conditions for the financial lifeline to Madrid. Carlos Delclos, a sociologist at Pompeu Fabra University, believes the situation in Spain is only going to go from bad to worse.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fkU38YVDZY

#Spain #Cinera:Demonstrators attacked police with stones, firecrackers and rockets fired from homemade bazookas.

Police fired rubber bullets at some 200 miners protesting austerity cuts in the northern Spanish village of Cinera. ­Havoc erupted after police tried to remove one of several barricades set ablaze by protesting masked miners on a highway near the village.

Several men then attacked the police by launching rockets from homemade bazookas, hurling firecrackers and flinging stones with slingshots.

 Police clad in bulletproof vests and wielding shields responded by firing rubber bullets and smoke bombs at the protesters. Officers eventually withdrew from Cinera, reportedly under pressure from the miners, who continued to pelt stones and firecrackers, chanting “We will not stop. They will get tired before we do.”

It is unclear how many miners and policemen were injured in the clashes.

 Several mining towns and villages have been protesting the Spanish government’s plans to slash subsidies to the coal sector by over 60 per cent, from 301 million euro last year down to 111 million this year. A sector-wide strike has been declared, and rail and road transit was paralyzed in the northern Asturias and Leon provinces as miners set up makeshift barricades composed of burning tires, garbage containers and railroad ties.

 Union officials say the austerity measures could jeopardize the jobs of around 8,000 coal miners, and up to 30,000 people indirectly employed by the sector.

The Spanish government has implemented a number of unpopular cost-slashing measures to reduce its swollen budget deficit since Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took office last year.

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Reuters / Eloy Alonso

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Reuters / Eloy Alonso

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Reuters / Eloy Alonso

http://www.rt.com/news/spain-miner-bazooka-protest-256/

Ruth And Joseph Breton : Ruth Ortiz Spent For The First Time Mother's Day Without Her Two Children.

Two days after declaring for the first time before the judge, Ruth Ortiz, the mother of two missing children from Cordoba, last seen seven months ago, spent her first Mother's Day alone without her two children Joseph 2 and 6 year old Ruth . Ruth Ortiz is now convinced  that her ex-husband, Joseph Breton, killed the toddlers for revenge: "He is a murderer and while they were away, killed them and hid them," she said during a ceremony at the gates of the prison Alcolea (Córdoba), where the children's father has been incarcerated since last October.

Ruth Ortiz accompanied by one hundred cyclists marched from the bridge of El Arenal of Cordoba to the provincial prison to demand the release of her two children. "I am very grateful for all who come. Thanks for helping us remember that my children are still missing," said Ortiz.

During the march Ruth Ortiz made ​​a stop at the estate of the Quemadillas owned by the family of Joseph Breton and where the search for the missing children has been concentrated on by the police.  After hanging up some posters with photos of  her children, their mother said she  feels "powerless".

Ortiz said she did not feel anything special for it being the Mother's Day: "Any day is the same without my children. I have no hopes of finding them."

The ceremony ended with the release of doves at the door of of the prisons gate. An hour and fifteen minutes before the march reached the vicinity of the prison, the parents of Joseph Breton were seen leaving in a taxi after visiting with their son.

#Mallorca :Spanish doctor ordered to pay for the upkeep of a child after a failed abortion

An expectant mother having an ultrasound scan. The mother of the child born in Palma de Mallorca had a scan which she was wrongly told showed the abortion had been a success. Photograph: Chad Ehlers/Getty Images

 

A Spanish doctor has been ordered to pay for the upkeep of a child after a failed abortion operation meant the boy's mother was obliged to see her pregnancy through to the end.

In a unique case, a court in Palma de Mallorca ordered the unnamed doctor to pay almost €1,000 (£800) a month in maintenance for the child until he reaches his 25th birthday.

"There has never been a case like this before in Spain," said Eva Munar, lawyer for the 24-year-old mother. "We don't know if it has ever happened anywhere else in the world."

The boy was born in October 2010, six months after his mother had gone for an abortion at the city's Emece clinic. The operation had been performed when the mother was almost seven weeks pregnant. The doctor told her two weeks later that a scan proved she was no longer pregnant.

In his sentence, Judge Francisco Pérez said the doctor had paid virtually no attention to the scan, though Munar said the clinic had not produced a copy.

"The scan lasted three minutes and I was out again," the mother told journalists on Thursday. "It was: 'You are fine, off you go and carry on with your life as normal.' " She did not return to the clinic for three months, and only after becoming convinced she must have become pregnant by mistake once more.

A fresh scan revealed, however, that this was the same pregnancy. She was already into her sixth month and past the 22-week limit for abortions in Spain. "I sought advice and was told that it would be a crime to abort at that stage," she said.

The woman, who had hidden her pregnancy from her family out of fear at their reaction, was forced to confront her parents with the news. She and the child now live with them. Despite the fact that a suction technique had been used to try to remove the embryo, the boy was born healthy.

The mother sued the doctor for damages, with the court awarding her €150,000 (£120,000). It also decided the doctor and his insurer should pay maintenance of €978 a month for 25 years, or a further €293,000.

"I am living off my parents now, and it shouldn't be like that," the mother said.

Among other things, Pérez pointed out that the mother had suffered huge stress because she did not know whether her child would be born healthy after the failed abortion attempt.

The consequences of the doctor's error, Perez said, would be with the mother forever.

"I am OK now, because I have had to accept things. There is no other option. I'm happy with my son," she said. "When I have to explain all this to him, I'll try to make sure that he feels OK about it. It was back then that he was not wanted, not now."

Munar said: "Obviously this has changed her life. This is not what she was planning and she certainly didn't expect it to happen after visiting the clinic.

"I am just glad the child was born healthy and we didn't have to bring a different kind of negligence case."

The doctor's lawyers are reportedly set to appeal against the decision.

Source : The Guardian

#Bedindorm:Andrew Dmytruk Held In A Spanish Jail For 17 Months Without Trial.

A mentally disabled British man, held in a Spanish jail for 17 months without trial, has become suicidal and should be released, his elderly mother said yesterday.

Andrew Dmytruk, 51, who was brain damaged after contracting meningitis as a baby, has been on remand since being accused of arson when a fire broke out in his Benidorm hotel in December 2010. His widowed mother, Doris O'Brien, who insists he is innocent, said he recently became so desperate that he slashed his wrists and throat.

"He couldn't stand it any more. This chap found him lying in his own blood, convulsing. He so nearly died," said Mrs O'Brien, 77. "It is disgusting. He was 13 stone when he went into prison. Now he is about eight stone, his bones are sticking out and he has lost teeth. He can't eat the food so he is refusing it.

"He is like a 10-year-old, quite jovial but when he gets mad he has childish tantrums. He can't understand why he is in jail and nor can I. He has never harmed anybody, never been in trouble with anybody," said the retired factory supervisor from Nottinghamshire, who has been borrowing money from family to fly to Spain monthly.

Mr Dmytruk's case has now been taken up by the charity Fair Trials International, which is calling for him to be either tried swiftly or released on bail. Its chief executive, Jago Russell, said yesterday: "Andrew has been held in prison for nearly 18 months with no trial date in sight. We are very concerned for his well-being so far away from home, in a world he struggles to understand, and hope the Spanish authorities deal with the case as quickly as possible and reconsider the decision to keep him in prison."

Mr Dmytruk was holidaying with his mother when a fire broke out in the early hours of the morning in a fourth floor room of the Ambassador Playa Hotel. The guests, who were mostly British, had to be evacuated and several were treated for smoke inhalation.
Despite his mother's assertions that he was asleep in their room on the second floor at the time, the hotel claimed he had been spotted on CCTV near the site of the fire. Mrs O'Brien said her son was terrified when he was arrested and taken away by Spanish police: "He just screamed, 'Mum what are they taking me for? What have I done?' It was terrible. I was in that much shock that I didn't know what to do."

Mrs O'Brien, who has been Mr Dmytruk's sole carer for many years, said that on 21 December 2010, he returned from a night out with friends and mistakenly got out of the lift on the 4th floor but was "fast asleep" in his room when the alarm was raised.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/disabled-briton-held-without-trial-in-spain-for-17-months-7737987.html

#SanJavier #Murcia :TRAINER AND CADET KILLED IN PLANE CRASH

A military C-101 jet, on a training flight that left Murcia San Javier on Thursday, crashed into a field in the town of Meco, near Madrid, before it was scheduled to return to San Javier as part of a routine training flight.

Two military officers, a Captain and Lieutenant Instructor, who have not yet been named until their families have been notified, were killed in the crash.

Update: The pilots are named as Captain Julio Castellón, born in Madrid in 1977, and officer Eduardo Castillo, from Tenerife, serving his fourth year at San Javier.

The 112 emergency centre received a call at around 11:00am and officers from the Guardia Civil were quick to attend, along with emergency ambulances and the fire service. Human remains were all that were found at the wreckage, located in a field near the Alcalá-Meco prison, around 40 kilometres from Madrid. 

Investigators state that the saw the two occupants tried to eject from the aircraft as their parachutes were deployed. The wreckage was spread over a wide area and forensic teams were meticulously collecting the evidence to allow investigators to ascertain the cause of the tragedy. It was thought that one of the pilots survived the initial impact, but both were confirmed as dead.

The C-101 training aircraft is the most popular choice for trainee pilots, having been operational for around 30 years and seen around 2,000 pilots successfully make the transition to become air force pilots. It has a top speed of 770 kilometres per hour at 8,535 meters and can accommodate a pilot and a student.

Similar to the Hawk in build and design, it is built entirely in Spain by CASA and its reliability, ease of use, low cost of operations and comprehensive instrumentation make it a very suitable aircraft for flight school and acrobatic flights, according to the Air Force. The aircraft is used in display by the Patrulla Águila, the Spanish equivalent to the British Red Arrows.


http://www.theleader.info/article/34023/spain/national/san-javier-trainer-and-cadet-killed-in-plane-crash/

#Spain: Ex - Pats #NHS Crackdown - Health Minister announces crackdown on foreigners using the Spanish Health Service

Fri, 20 Apr 2012

The cabinet on Friday decided to crack down on foreigners using the Spanish Health Service as part of an additional 7 billion € of cuts. They intend to toughen the conditions for inclusion on the Padrón census. Minister for Health, Ana Mato, said ‘We are going to end the abuses committed by some foreigners’. She is going to change the Ley de Extranjería which intends to put a limit to the so-called ‘health tourism’, which has seen family members of foreign residents to come to Spain ‘exclusively’ to receive health attention. Ana Mato insisted that from now it will not be so easy to come to Spain, sign the Padrón census, and obtain a health card, as it has been. ‘Just getting on the Padrón they all had the right to the health card’, said the Minister. ‘Now there will be a series of additional requirements when the Padrón is issued’. She said to guarantee the universality of the Health Service ‘for all the Spaniards’ it was necessary to stop the illegal and undue use which some foreigners have been making of this service. On Thursday the Minister met with the regions and they agreed on a new article which will ‘explicitly prohibit a person moving regions in search of health attention'. The Minister considers these measures will do away with health tourism and save 1 billion €. Ana Mato also said that she was going to revise some international conventions on the matter, given that ‘many’ countries do not repay the money they owe Spain for the health attention given here to their citizens. Among the other measures approved, the end of paying for some medicaments ‘with little therapeutic value’. A list of included medicines accepted nationally is to be prepared. The Minister said ‘We all have to collaborate with those who having a worse time’.

#Madrid: Ex-Pats Defrauded The British Government Of 43 Million Pounds In Benefit Fraud In 2011

Fri, 20 Apr 2012

The British Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, has been visiting the Department of Work and Pensions benefits and healthcare team in Madrid. He warned Britons living abroad not to break the strict rules on what benefits they can and cannot claim.

People who are pretending to live in the UK so they can collect benefits, but in fact are living overseas cost the British taxpayer 43 million pounds last year.

Most of the reports of such benefit fraud came from Spain.

Iain Duncan Smith commented, “We are determined to clamp down on benefit fraud abroad, which cost the British taxpayer around £43 million last year.

This money should be going to the people who need it most and not lining the pockets of criminals sunning themselves overseas.

The vast majority of British people overseas are law abiding, but fraudulently claiming benefits while living abroad is a crime and we are committed to putting a stop to it.”

He also encouraged Britons to use the dedicated Spanish hotline to report benefit thieves. 900 554 440 or you report a benefit fraud here.

The hotline has resulted in 100 people being sanctioned or prosecuted, and 134 more cases are currently under investigation.

3.1 million pounds in over payments of benefit have been identified and will be reclaimed. Source – UK in Spain - http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=754530182

Duncan Smith made the most of his visit to Madrid and took the chance to meet with Health Minister, Ana Mato, and the Mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella.

They discussed the response to the crisis with Duncan Smith calling for an end to the culture of ‘unemployment and dependency’, increasing the control on public spending and eliminating ‘the subsidies which don’t resolve problems because in some cases ‘they trap the poor’.

#Madrid : #Scotland Drug Trafficking - Ian Donaldson enjoyed a lavish lifestyle in Marbella and Tenerife trafficking Drugs.

Posted: Sun, 22 Apr 2012 

 

 A SUSPECTED drug trafficker was found by police hiding in a farmhouse loft in Scotland with a bag stuffed with £70,000, a Spanish court was told last week.

Ian Donaldson, 32, is accused of helping fund an international drugs ring smuggling cocaine and speed from Spain to Scotland The former amateur racing driver – who drove a Lamborghini with the distinctive Lambo 88 plate – was tracked down to the farm by officers from the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency.

Donaldson – who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle in Marbella and Tenerife– is one of six Brits facing court in Madrid accused of making millions from the drugs trade.

Detective Inspector James Wallace of the SCDEA told the court: “I arrested him on February 27, 2009. He was hiding in a loft area in a farm building. We also found £70,000 hidden in a bag.” Eight SCDEA detectives gave evidence to the National Court in the Spanish capital last week via a video link from Edinburgh.

The court heard Scottish police mounted a surveillance operation after Donaldson, from Renton, Dunbartonshire, was released on bail. Detectives watched him in a series of meetings in Glasgow and Hamilton in April 2009, as he tried to hide the origins of his fortune, prosecutors allege. Donaldson met with fellow accused Mary Hendry and Joseph Campbell and was observed discussing large sums of money and swapping paperwork for a nightclub in Gran Canaria.

It was alleged they were secretly plotting to make it look like Donaldson had made some of his wealth from the club. Meetings took place at supermarkets in Glasgow and Hamilton and the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. DI Wallace told the court: “We saw he (Donaldson) was creating a defence for the Spanish charges. “I believe they (Hendry and Campbell) were both subservient to Donaldson, who instructed them on what to do.” The detective said Donaldson and his company IRD Services were also investigated for money- laundering in Scotland. He added: “There is evidence he purchased seven vehicles in Scotland, worth up to £900,000, between 2006 and 2008.” Mary Hendry told the court she only met Donaldson twice for legitimate business meetings. She said: “Joseph Campbell introduced me to Ian Donaldson because I was trying to sell my restaurant. “I met him the next day and he said he was not interested. I never saw him again.”

It is alleged Donaldson was the money man for a gang of drug smugglers based in Tenerife and Marbella, led by Glaswegian Ronald O’Dea, 45.

The gang are alleged to have spent millions on luxury villas, fast cars and yachts.

In October 2008, police seized a a haul of amphetamines worth £660,000 heading to Scotland after stopping a lorry in Oxfordshire.

Donaldson, Hendry and O’Dea share the dock in Madrid with fellow Scot James MacDonald, 62, and Londoners Steve Brown, 45, and Deborah Learmouth, 49.

The gang face charges ranging from drug-trafficking to money-laundering. They deny all charges. Two other defendants – Brian Rawlings and Joseph Campbell – failed to show up at the trial.

The judges will give their verdict at a later date.

#Madrid #LibDem's Michael Brown Fraudster : Police hunt for Michael Brown's missing millions

Posted: Sun, 22 Apr 2012

 

British police are still trying to trace £18m allegedly stolen by the Liberal Democrats' fugitive donor Michael Brown, who is expected to be extradited to Britain within the next 10 days.

Brown, 46, was in a holding cell near Madrid airport on Sunday, having been deported from the Dominican Republic, where he had been on the run from UK authorities for three years. Brown, who gave £2.4m to the Liberal Democrats before the 2005 general election, is not expected to challenge a formal move to extradite him to London which has already been set in motion. He was convicted of theft and false accounting in his absence in Britain in 2008 and sentenced to seven years in jail. Detectives are still trying to trace around £18m of Brown's stolen money, which had been moved between his accounts in the US, Britain and Switzerland, the Guardian understands.

Brown was estimated to have stolen more than £60m in a number of frauds. Most of his assets have been accounted for in property deals, a Bentley, a yacht and the private jet once used to fly senior Lib Dems across the UK. However, more than £18m has not yet been accounted for. "The file at Interpol on Brown and his associates remains open," a source told the Guardian.

Brown's return will be another embarrassing development in the long-running saga over the Lib Dems' biggest single donation.

The party has refused to compensate any of Brown's victims, claiming it received the money in good faith and spent it on the 2005 election campaign.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg welcomed Brown's return to Britain but said on Sunday that the party would not be returning his donation because the Electoral Commission had concluded the money had been received in good faith.

The deputy prime minister, who pointed out that the donation was made before he was elected to Westminster, told BBC1's Sunday Politics: "I'm very pleased he's coming back to serve his sentence. This is a convicted fraudster. "I should stress that this is something which happened as far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned before I was even an MP, yet alone leader of the Liberal Democrats.

What I've been told is that the Electoral Commission in 2009 looked at this exhaustively – as far as the receipt of that money by the Liberal Democrats from one of his companies. They categorically concluded that the money was received in good faith and all the controls, all the checks that should have been made were reasonably made by the Liberal Democrats at the time. If we'd been shown wanting on those accounts then of course we should pay the money back." But Brown's return will increase focus on the Electoral Commission inquiry into Brown's donations.

The inquiry failed to call the Lib Dems' former treasurer, Reg Clark, who resigned over Brown in 2005 and warned advisers to the former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy that Brown should be treated with extreme caution. One of Brown's victims said the Lib Dems should return the money. Tony Brown, managing partner at law firm Bivonas which represents US attorney Robert Mann who lost more than $5m (£3m), said Brown may be asked to give evidence as part of his client's claim against the Lib Dems.

"The Lib Dems have refused to repay this money to our client even though they know that this is the proceeds of crime.

The Electoral Commission has failed to investigate this properly in our view. So now that Brown is returning to the jurisdiction, we can investigate again and establish the basis on which the Lib Dems received this money." Brown is expected to appear before a Spanish court to confirm his name and will then appear before an extradition hearing within 10 days.

City of London police, who first uncovered Brown's fraud, confirmed his deportation. Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart said: "We hope that him facing justice will bring some closure to the victims who suffered as a result of his frauds." A close friend of Brown's told the Guardian on Sunday that he had arrived in Spain on Saturday after "volunteering" for deportation from the Dominican Republic, where he has been hiding for three years under the name of Darren Nally. "He asked to return to Britain. He is going home to face the music," the friend said. Brown appeared to come from nowhere when the party was paid £2.4m in the runup to the 2005 election from his company 5th Avenue Partners. A fast-talking and brash Glaswegian, he had walked into the party's then headquarters in Cowley Street and offered it money. He was not registered to vote, had no interest in politics and had never been a party member, but said he was giving the money to create an even playing field.

Brown wined and dined with Charles Kennedy and other party grandees, and used his private jet to fly Kennedy across the country during the election campaign.

Former Lib Dem insiders say he dazzled them with stories of Gordonstoun public school, St Andrews University and his connections with royalty and the US government.

The truth was that he had attended his local school and completed a City and Guilds in catering at Glasgow College of Food Technology.

He had no US government links – although he was wanted in Florida for cheque fraud.

He was arrested in late 2005 after four former clients said he had duped them out of more than £40m in a high-yield fraud.

His victims included Martin Edwards, the former Manchester United chairman, who had invested £8m with 5th Avenue Partners.

The court would later be told that 5th Avenue Partners was wholly fraudulent and Brown had given money to the Lib Dems to give himself an air of respectability while duping his victims.

The party had been used as part of his cover story, a judge said.

In June 2008, while awaiting trial, Brown fled and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In the weeks before he disappeared, from his Hampstead bail address in north London, he changed his name on the electoral roll to Campbell-Brown and allowed his hair to turn grey. He travelled to the Dominican Republic where he enjoyed a millionaire's lifestyle while on the run. He lived in gated communities yards from some of the most pristine beaches in the Caribbean, drove a series of 4x4 vehicles and was a regular at exclusive golf courses. In Punta Cana, an exclusive resort on the eastern tip of the island, he could often be seen walking his dog – named Charles, after the former Lib Dem leader.

He was arrested in Punta Cana in January on unrelated fraud allegations.

Source: The Guardian

#Seville :Video - Laura Cerna Murdered American Teacher - Antonio Gordillo Charged With Her Murder.

A jury at the High Court in Seville, Spain convicted Antonio Gordillo of murdering American teacher Laura Cerna in a decision announced on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at about 2:30 p.m. local time, and reported on that date by Diario de Sevilla, El Correo, Europa Press, ABC de Sevilla, and other news sources.

An attached slide show and video clip about domestic violence in Spain are also included with this report.

http://www.examiner.com/article/spanish-jury-convicts-antonio-gordillo-of-murdering-american-teacher-laura-cerna

#Spain #Madrid: Bank of Spain confirms country is in technical recession as economy shrinks in first quarter:

Spain is back in recession as the economy contracted 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, the central bank said Monday.

The figure published in a Bank of Spain monthly report followed a 0.3 percent decline in the fourth quarter. A technical recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

The news of recession comes as no surprise, however - the new conservative government has said the economy is shrinking and forecasts it will contract 1.7 percent this year...read more

http://apne.ws/Jzf0N8

King of #Spain Faces Calls to Abdicate After Elephant Hunt

 

The King of Spain who is recovering in hospital after injuring his hip during a fall while elephant hunting in Botswana faced calls to abdicate amid growing controversy over the trip.

By Fiona Govan, Madrid, Daily Telegraph, April 16, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9207280/King-of-Spain-faces-calls-to-abdicate-after-elephant-hunt.html

The 74-year-old monarch has faced a barrage of criticism over his extravagant lifestyle at a time when Spaniards are suffering harsh austerity measures in a nation mired in economic crisis.

Left wing leaders called for greater transparency of Royal accounts and one even suggested it may be time for the once popular monarch to give up his throne.

“The head of state must choose between his obligations and the duty of service of his public responsibilities, or an abdication that would allow him to enjoy a different kind of life,” Tomas Gomez, the leader of the Madrid branch of the opposition socialist party, said on Sunday.

Spain’s minority United Left (IU) party called for a referendum on whether Spain should return to a republic citing the poor example the Monarch was setting during a time of hardship.

“It shows a complete lack of ethics and respect toward the people of Spain who are suffering a lot,” said Cayo Lara Moya, spokesman of the IU.

The party said it will present a list of questions to parliament calling for details of the financing of the trip to be made public. The budget for the Royal Household was reduced by only 2 per cent in 2012 – from 8.43 million euros last year – whereas government ministries faced cuts of 16 per cent across the board.

This year, for the first time, the Palace will publish a breakdown of its accounts in a step towards greater transparency.

So far the Royal Household has declined to give details on the trip except to say it was a “private matter”.

King Juan Carlos also faced calls to resign his position as patron of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) over his hunting of elephants.

A petition on the online forum Actuable had already attracted 40,000 signatures by Monday lunchtime calling for the King to renounce his presidency of the WWF in light of the recent hunting trip.

El Mundo, a newspaper normally supportive of the Monarchy summed up the feeling in Spain with an editorial, Sunday, entitled: “An irresponsible journey at an inopportune time.”

Mariano Rajoy, Spain’s Prime Minister, will meet with the monarch later this week when he is discharged from hospital, the government website said.

 http://bit.ly/HV3WrO #spain #news #euro

#Spain :Census of "stolen children" to be carried out

Census of "stolen children" to be carried out By: ThinkSpain , Thursday, April 12, 2012

The government has agreed to carry out a census of possible cases of "stolen children" (niños robados) in Spain, which will include name, date and place of birth, and a database in collaboration with the National Institute of Toxicology, which will enable scientists to compare genetic profiles of mothers and children, one of the original demands made by the victims of this scandal. In today's meeting with representatives of the victims' associations, Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz Gallardón (pictured, centre) said: "We want to help resolve this terrible human drama. We're not going to give up on it." His comments came on the same day Sister María, the first person to be charged in relation to the scandal, claimed her right to silence after being called to testify in court in Madrid. Furthermore, Spanish authorities are going to suggest an amendment to European Union law to facilitate access to healthcare files and thus determine blood relationships. The Justice Ministry has also agreed to make it easier for victims to get access to data held on the Civil Register, like births and possible deaths of newborn infants over the past 50 years. The victims' associations have asked for an "interdepartamental commission" or "specialised investigatory group" to be set up at national level, and offering international coverage. With regard to the state prosecutor, they have asked for local and regional offices to be instructed to act in a "uniform" way, basing their cases on the crime of "illegal detention" so that cases are not shelved. More than 900 cases of "stolen children" are currently being investigated, but new cases are coming to light all the time. Lawyers say the total could eventually reach 300,000. The scandal covers a period of about 40 to 50 years, beginning under the Franco dictatorship, and continuing up to the 1990s.  Hundreds, or possibly thousands of children were taken from parents judged to be morally or economically deficient and placed with approved Catholic, often childless, families.  An ingrained fear of or respect for the church and the medical profession has prevented the scandal being exposed before now.  Also, Spanish law does not require the biological mother's name on the birth certificate, which has slowed down exposure of the scandal in many cases. Source : Think Spain

#Cordoba :No Trace Of Ruth And Jóse - Father Remains The Prime Suspect

Six months without Ruth and José, Córdoba's missing children By: thinkSPAIN , Friday, April 6, 2012

NO trace of Ruth and José, the two infants who disappeared while playing in a Córdoba park with their father, has been seen in six months and all search parties have come home empty-handed, authorities revealed this weekend. Ruth, six, and two-year-old José literally vanished into thin air on October 8 last year and, although the river near the city-centre park was dragged and their paternal grandparents' garden and home searched, they have not been found. Their mother, Ruth Ortiz, who lives with the children in Huelva, has already testified, as has their father. The father, José Bretón, remains prime suspect, but no evidence has been found to incriminate him. Judge in charge of the case, José Luis Rodríguez Laín, who remanded Bretón in custody on October 21, maintains that the children were never in the Cruz Conde park in the city in the first place. This is the view held by Ruth Ortiz, since she claims Bretón did not call her to tell her of the children's disappearance until 05.00hrs the following morning. She has been clamouring ever since for her ex-husband to 'tell the truth' about the infants' whereabouts, and has also been in contact with his brother and sister, Rafael and Catalina, believing they may hold information leading to finding the children. Ruth Ortiz is also said to have formally reported Bretón for 'psychological abuse' during their marriage, namely 'insults and humiliation', although there is said to have been no domestic violence involved. Laín and the prosecution service believe Ruth and José's father to be guilty of false imprisonment, or kidnap, of the kids whose mother had custody of them. They have tracked his mobile telephone calls and photographs taken on his handset, which they claim do not coincide with his version of events. Source : Think Spain

#Spain: Jeers For Spanish Nun In Baby Kidnapping Case.

An 80-year-old Spanish nun was jeered as she arrived in court this week, the first person to go before a judge over cases of babies allegedly stolen from their mothers during and after the Franco era.

Sr Maria Gomez Valbuena went before a judge investigating her role in the kidnapping of a newborn girl from a Madrid hospital three decades ago, one of thousands of cases of alleged theft of babies by nuns, priests and doctors.

Wearing the blue habit of her Sisters of Charity order, she refused to testify and left the court accompanied by another nun from her convent as police shielded her from the crush of reporters.

She was called to give evidence in the case of Maria Luisa Torres, a mother who has accused the nun of stealing her daughter shortly after she was born at the Santa Cristina hospital in Madrid in March 1982.

Ms Torres, 58, said that she accepted the nun’s offer to temporarily look after her newborn daughter until her economic situation improved but instead, Sr Maria gave the baby away to another family.

“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’,” Ms Torres said.

“She was a nun and I thought she was untouchable,” she added when asked why she did not take action against Sr Maria at the time.

Ms Torres was reunited with her daughter Pilar last year following an investigation by a journalist.

The nun has been charged with illegal detention and falsifying documents.

As Sr Maria arrived at the court escorted by police, a woman who believes she was kidnapped as a newborn from the Santa Cristina hospital in 1957 yelled at the black car transporting the nun.

“It is shameful and on top of it all they protect her. I don’t even know who I am,” said 55-year-old Paloma Perez as the car drove by.

There are no firm figures for the number of children who were snatched from their mothers during General Francisco Franco’s 1939-75 dictatorship and up to the end of the 1980s.
Estimates range from hundreds to tens of thousands of victims of a practice that began as a policy to remove children whose “moral education” was considered at risk and allegedly developed into financial trafficking.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120414/world/Jeers-for-Spanish-nun-in-baby-kidnapping-case.415407

#Spain #Bailout :Spains 10-year bond yield jumps above 6 percent as fears mount over bailout

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#Menorca :Contrabandista Bar Run By Corrupt Ex Cop John Davidson !

With its offering of karaoke nights and quizzes alongside an Anglo-Mediterranean menu ranging from sole to chicken tikka, the Contrabandista bar and restaurant has been a popular spot for English-speaking tourists in Menorca.

Patrons remark on the attentiveness of the owner, John, to the needs of his customers, offering free appetisers where service is running late, and say they plan to visit again.

Indeed, for a tanned and relaxed John Davidson, the streets of south London have seemed a world away. It is more than 15 years since Mr Davidson stalked the capital's thoroughfares as Detective Sergeant John Davidson, a no-nonsense Scots-born cop with a 30-year record of catching criminals from cocaine dealers to wristwatch thieves.

But even now, DS Davidson’s actions while in the Metropolitan Police hang over him in his retirement home in the Balearics.

In recent years, the trail of individuals making their way to El Contrabandista or the Smugglers bar has occasionally included newspaper journalists and film crews seeking Mr Davidson’s response to claims from the highest levels of Scotland Yard that rather than being an honest thief-taker, he was prominent in a corrupt cabal of detectives operating out of an imposing police station in East Dulwich, south east London.

In particular, they have wanted to know his feelings on allegations that he played a corrupt role in the original Stephen Lawrence inquiry.

“Shrinking violet” is a term that no-one who knew Mr Davidson during his time carrying a warrant card would apply to him.

Known to his colleagues as “OJ” for “Obnoxious Jock”, he was renowned for his abrupt manner in a career which began in January 1968 when he joined the notoriously hard-bitten Glasgow City Police, later subsumed into Strathclyde Police. He joined the Met in June 1970 and stayed with Britain’s biggest force until his retirement in March 1998.

Former colleagues described him as “professional”, even “imposing”. But a rigorous examination of his conduct in the botched first Stephen Lawrence investigation by the Macpherson Inquiry came up with a different of adjectives - and views - to apply to the veteran detective.

Davidson had joined the investigation into the murder of the black teenager some 36 hours after the killing and performed numerous key roles, including the supervision of an important early witness, known as James Grant, who came forward with information that it had been carried out by members of a white gang calling themselves “the Krays”.

The Macpherson report, published in 1999 after Mr Davidson had spent three days in the witness box, was every bit as unvarnished in its assessment of the detective as he was in the habit of being with his interviewees.

Describing him as a “self-willed and abrasive officer” with a “strong, self-opinionated character” who was likely to dominate witnesses, the report criticised his handling of Mr Grant and other witnesses and found that he and others were guilty of “unwitting collective racism” in their handling of the investigation.

This hinged on Mr Davidson’s refusal in the witness box to accept that the attack on Stephen, who was chased by his killers calling “What - what nigger?”, was purely racist.

In his evidence, the detective said: “They were thugs who were out to kill, not particularly a black person, but anybody and I believe that to this day that that was thugs, not racism, just pure bloody-minded thuggery.”

Describing his attitude as “obdurate”, the report found that Mr Davidson had influenced junior colleagues to reach the same view and this had led to the wrong approach being taken by them towards the murder.

What the report did not find, however, was any evidence that Mr Davidson had tried to thwart the investigation, in particular because of any connection between him and Clifford Norris, the gangster father of David Norris, one of two men last month convicted of Stephen’s killing.

The clouds of suspicion first gathered over Mr Davidson after he left the flailing Lawrence investigation and joined the South East Regional Crime Squad (SERCS), the close-knit unit set up to tackle drug dealers and other gangsters in London and its surrounding counties.

According to Neil Putnam, the detective constable who became a friend of Mr Davidson and later his would-be nemesis as an anti-corruption supergrass, the Scots DS was “sponsored” onto the SERCS squad by another colleague.

Certainly the sense of camaraderie on the unit seems to have been strong. Mr Putnam said he had played for football team managed by Mr Davidson, who had also visited his home and even attended the Christening of his infant son.

Worries were also shared, with Mr Davidson confessing that he had concerns about paying his son’s school fees, according to Mr Putnam. Mr Davidson has denied that he was close friends with his former colleague.

This is perhaps unsurprising given that after his arrest in July 1998 by the Yard‘s CIB3 anti-corruption unit, Mr Putnam named Mr Davidson as his partner in a corrupt relationship with an informant, laying out three specific allegations of theft and profiteering.

* The two men shared the £250 profit from the sale of stolen Omega watches.
* In December 2004, Mr Putnam claimed Mr Davidson gave him £40-£50, describing it as “Sargey’s Christmas box”. It was allegedly a share of the proceeds from the sale of a seized haul of stolen electrical goods.
* In spring 1995, both men were involved in the stopping of a cocaine dealer in the car park of a Dulwich pub. Mr Putnam claimed he saw his colleague take a white carrier bag from the car holding a brick-shaped object. The following day, he said, he was presented with £500 in an envelope - his share of the proceeds.

Mr Davidson, who was arrested in September 1998 on the basis of Mr Putnam’s claims, denied the allegations and was never charged after prosecutors decided there was insufficient corroborating evidence.

In particular, Mr Davidson ferociously denies the claim which Mr Putnam insists he made to his CIB3 debriefers - and which the Yard insists he did not make - that he had admitted to taking money from Clifford Norris during the Stephen Lawrence investigation.

Although Mr Davidson was allowed to leave the Met in March 1998, he did not do so without question marks over his record.

In November 1995 he had been suspended while bizarre allegations were investigated that he and five others had been moonlighting as drivers and bodyguards in London for Reg Grundy, the Australian television tycoon behind the soap opera Neighbours.

It was alleged that the officers had carried out their freelance work on police time after telling their superiors that they were on court duty.

The disciplinary investigation remained unresolved after three of the officers reported sick and left the Met on the grounds of mental ill-health.

Mr Davidson, along with another colleague, was allowed to retire, leaving Britain in the - perhaps mistaken - belief that his past would not follow him.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/profile-detective-sergeant-john-davidson-7537552.html

#Noos :15 Questions and Answers on the Urdangarín Case.

http://atthespanishcourt.wordpress.com/category/corruption-scandal/

#Cordoba :Still Missing Presumed Dead Tiny Tot's José and Ruth As Three Month Anniversary Approaches

As the three-month anniversary approaches of the disappearance of the two children missing from Córdoba, Ruth and José Bretón, police started a new search on Wednesday for any sign of the young brother and sister.

They have returned to Las Quesadillas, the area in Córdoba where the children’s grandparents live, and were searching an area of waste ground near the Guadalquivir River, close to the grandparents’ finca. Police dogs were on site to help in the search, and specialist officers were brought in to inspect the sewerage system.

The children’s father, José Bretón, remains the only suspect in the case and remains in prison on remand at the Córdoba provincial jail. His estranged wife, Ruth Ortiz, visited him there last week in the hope of some clue to her children’s whereabouts, but left without any information. Her family have been in Portugal this week, putting up posters of the missing children.

A demonstration has been called in Córdoba City on Sunday to demand the brother and sister’s return, on the three-month anniversary of their disappearance.


http://www.fincaforsale.co.uk/?p=1860