Moroccan Woman Alleges Rape and Forced Prostitution by Couple in Spain; Prosecutors Seek 21-Year Sentence

The plaintiff studied and worked in Germany before settling in Spain where she met the couple who would have offered her help. "When I arrived in Saragossa in January 2018, I didn’t speak a word of Spanish. I met Mohamed and he told me he knew people who could help me get my papers, but the first thing he did was force me to have sex with him when I was a virgin," the young woman explained in tears.

The plaintiff said her compatriot raped her "many times" in an apartment in the La Jota neighborhood. Given the seriousness of the facts, the magistrates asked the young woman to explain in detail how these sexual assaults took place. After a long silence, the modest plaintiff finally provided the details of her assault, specifying that Mohamed’s companion, Elena Loredana N., had also sexually assaulted her.

To read: Moroccan Man on Trial for Alleged Sexual Assault in Albacete, Faces 18-Year Sentence

The defendants denied having extorted or blackmailed the young woman, let alone having raped her, stressing that the relationships were consensual. "You are Moroccan and profess the Muslim religion, but you are a modern woman who has traveled to several countries and done university studies. Why didn’t you report these facts earlier?..." asked the defense lawyer.

In response, the young woman recalled that she did not speak Spanish and that her tormentors never left her alone and constantly threatened to call a police friend to report her irregular situation so that she would be expelled from the country. "Yes, I had a phone, but what could I do? Call my family to tell them I was having sex with a man who was not my husband? You don’t understand, because you’re not Muslim. But it would have been a shame for them," she added.