Madrid – The former health minister in Ceuta, one of Spain’s North African enclaves, has been placed in pre-trial detention for alleged child sexual abuse offences, legal sources and media reports said on Saturday.
Spain’s RTVE public television said the arrest was in connection with a case involving unaccompanied Moroccan minors staying at a reception centre in the tiny enclave.
In a ruling issue late on Friday, a Ceuta court ordered Javier Guerrero, who is a doctor by profession, be immediately placed in pre-trial detention.
“The court has agreed… to place Doctor Javier G. in pre-trial detention without bail for the alleged commission of a crime involving the sexual abuse of minors,” said a brief statement from Andalusia’s top court, which has jurisdiction in the enclave.
“The suspect made a statement in court but only answered the questions posed by his defence counsel. The court will continue investigating.”
No further details were made public, but according to a posting on Twitter by Guerrero himself, he was arrested by police at his home on Wednesday in front of his wife and children.
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El Mundo daily said his arrest followed a lengthy investigation lasting more than a year by the Guardia Civil police which began following the 2021 migrant crisis.
In May of that year, more than 10 000 people surged across the border into Ceuta as Moroccan border guards looked the other way, among them hundreds of unaccompanied minors.
Although most migrants were immediately sent back in the following days, some 820 children and teenagers remained inside Ceuta under the enclave’s protection.
The highly-unusual border incident came in the context of a major diplomatic spat between Spain and Morocco which has since been resolved.
Guerrero entered local politics with the right-wing Popular Party in 2015 and was named health chief for Ceuta in 2019.
He resigned from the post in January 2021 after admitting he had violated the Covid-19 vaccination protocols.
Last year, he left the PP to set up his own political party, Ceuta Avanza.
The Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, on the coast of North Africa, have long been a magnet for people fleeing violence and poverty across Africa and seeking refuge via the continent’s only land borders with the European Union.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pixabay
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