Overview
- Rebeca and Laura filed a direct criminal querella with the Audiencia Nacional on Thursday, supported by Women’s Link, and requested protective measures while asking judges to open an investigation.
- Their complaint alleges repeated sexual assaults, harassment and forced, degrading working conditions at Iglesias’s residences in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic in 2021.
- An earlier January complaint to the Fiscalía was archived for lack of jurisdiction, a procedural decision that did not examine the merits of the allegations.
- Women’s Link argues Spain can claim extraterritorial jurisdiction under Article 23 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary and under human-rights treaties, but the Audiencia Nacional must first decide whether to admit the querella and start preliminary proceedings.
- If judges accept the filing, the case could expand access to justice for migrant and domestic workers and set a legal precedent on Spain’s power to investigate alleged crimes by nationals committed overseas, with observers watching the court’s next procedural ruling.