The Office of the Prosecutor of the Principality of Asturias is calling for harsh sentences for twelve men whom it attributes membership in a criminal group dismantled in Oviedo, dedicated to prostituting and sexually assaulting minors who fled from the care centers where they were being housed.
According to the provisional conclusions brief filed with the Third Section of the Provincial Court of Oviedo, the organization would have acted from the summer of 2023 until, at least, March 2024. During that period, the main defendant, of Malian nationality, took in in his home teenage wards who had escaped from their centers and, taking advantage of their particular vulnerability, organized sexual encounters with compatriots and known adult men in exchange for money or drugs. The accused originally from Mali also maintained sexual relations with several of the young women.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office details in its report that the victims are six minors who were between 13 and 17 years old when the events took place. The meetings were arranged in different homes in Oviedo, where some of the accused even came to act with violence against the teenagers.
The twelve defendants are originally from Mali, Senegal, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cameroon, Guinea, and Ghana. The Public Prosecutor’s Office attributes to them, among others, crimes of sexual assault of minors under 16 years of age, continued fostering of the prostitution of minors, crimes against public health, and membership in a criminal group.
For one of the defendants of Senegalese origin, the public prosecution requests sentences that add up to as much as 47 years in prison, while for the Malian citizen it seeks 30 and a half years in prison. For the other ten defendants, different terms of imprisonment are requested for crimes of sexual assault and for fostering prostitution.
In addition, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requests for all of them a ban on approaching the victims by less than 200 meters and on communicating with them during periods ranging from 6 to 13 years, along with measures of supervised release of up to 5 years and disqualification from the right to passive suffrage.
As civil liability, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requests that the defendants compensate the six injured parties with amounts ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 euros.