Spanish Court Acquits Moroccan Man in Arranged Marriage Rape Case

During the trial, the defendant and the plaintiff acknowledged that they did not take the time to get to know each other well. They met only a week before the wedding and, after the celebration, remained without seeing each other for a year, with the defendant residing in Zaragoza and having to complete the formalities for his wife to join him. But as soon as she arrived in Zaragoza, she clearly told her husband that she did not want to live with him, recalls Heraldo.

The prosecution did not find any evidence against the Moroccan who, according to his wife, would have forced her to have sexual relations. The judges also did not find any evidence to convict him for ill-treatment. "We only had sexual relations during the three days when we were together in Morocco for the wedding. When she arrived here, she didn’t even let me kiss her. She slept in the living room and I in my room," said the defendant, denying the facts.

To read: Moroccan Woman Accuses Husband of Rape in Spanish Court After Arranged Marriage

"I got married out of obligation..." specified the woman who testified by videoconference. According to her testimony, she had agreed with her husband to sleep in separate rooms until she found accommodation. But the latter would have sexually assaulted her on two occasions. For the judge, "the sole testimony of the victim is not enough to convict for the continuous crime of sexual assault."

The court believes that the woman did not detail in her complaint "how the events occurred or specify the dates, even approximate, when they occurred or how the defendant acted." The woman, who is now divorced from her husband, could appeal the decision to the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon.