Spanish Police Rescue Moroccan Woman from Forced Marriage, Arrest Family Members

The young woman had been suffering for years from physical and psychological violence from her parents, who regularly beat her and prevented her from socializing. In her complaint to the National Police, she explains that her parents and an aunt agreed to give her in marriage without her consent to a 40-year-old cousin in exchange for 1,000 euros. The formalities for the marriage were to be completed in December at the Moroccan Consulate in Valencia, reports El Español.

The Moroccan woman opposed this union and continued to suffer the anger of her parents, who constantly insulted and assaulted her. Exasperated by this violence and threats, she decided to flee the family home. Her parents managed to find her a few days later and inflicted a beating on her, breaking one of her teeth. This did not prevent the young woman from fleeing again to take refuge in a center specializing in the care of women victims of abuse, where she was taken care of.

The specialized agents of the immigration and border brigades and the judicial police of Alicante opened an investigation to verify the veracity of the facts denounced by the victim in her complaint. This is how the parents, the aunt and the cousin of the woman were arrested. The four suspects, aged 35 to 52, are accused of human trafficking, assault and battery, and domestic violence offenses. Two of them have been made available to the Alicante court.