Overview
- A judge in Bilbao formally closed the pre-trial investigation and sent the case to trial under the abbreviated criminal procedure against seven former members of the Belorado monastery.
- Authorities say a December intervention at the Orduña convent found five very elderly nuns in degrading conditions and that those women were taken to Hospital de Basurto for medical checks.
- The judicial order records possible offenses including degrading treatment, coercion, abandonment and omission of the duty to render aid against the seven accused.
- One former nun has been cleared and the seven defendants remain provisionally free, represented by counsel who say they deny the allegations and plan to contest the charges.
- The next step is an oral hearing where the public prosecutor and private accusers will state specific penalty requests, after which short legal deadlines allow appeals or challenges to the judge's order.