Julio Iglesias faces claims female staff were told to have sexual health tests, say reports | Spain
According to local media reports, Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, who is accused of sexually assaulting two of his former female employees, also allegedly ordered some women working for him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
Allegations of sexual assault against the 82-year-old singer, whose career spans 60 years, were published on Tuesday. Three-year joint investigation By Spanish news site elDiario.es and Spanish-language TV network Univision Noticias.
The two women, a domestic worker and physical therapist known by the pseudonyms Rebeca and Laura, claim they were sexually assaulted in 2021 while working at Iglesias’ Caribbean estates in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.
A complaint was filed against Iglesias at the Audiencia Nacional, Spain’s highest criminal court, on charges of sexual assault and human trafficking. The allegations are currently the subject of a preliminary investigation by prosecutors in court.
On Wednesday elDiario.es published the statements of Rebeca and another former worker, Carolina. the need for medical testing To control sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and chlamydia.
“He ordered the girls to go to the gynecologist for a general examination,” Rebeca said. “There were 10-12 girls. They did everything to us there, the gynecologist checked everything. It only happened to girls.”
Carolina said: “I was tested for sexually transmitted diseases. They did an ultrasound and blood tests to see if we had any diseases. It didn’t seem normal to me.”
The women said they were then asked to send the results to one of Iglesias’ maids. ElDiario.es also obtained medical documents showing that five women working at Iglesias’ villa in the Dominican Republic underwent gynecological examinations in 2021.
Rebeca claimed that Iglesias, who was 77 at the time, often called her to his room at the end of the workday.
He then said he would penetrate her anally and vaginally with his fingers without her consent. “He used me almost every night,” she said. “I felt like an object, a slave.”
Laura told elDiario.es and Univision Noticias that Iglesias kissed her on the mouth and touched her breasts without her consent and against her will.
“We were at the beach and he came up to me and touched my nipples,” said the singer, adding that a similar incident took place by the pool at the singer’s villa in Punta Cana, a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic.
Journalists from elDiario.es and Univision repeatedly tried to contact Iglesias and his lawyer through various channels, but did not receive a response to questions sent by email, phone and letter. The Guardian has contacted its representatives for comment.
In an interview published on elDiario.es on Wednesday, Laura said that she and Rebeca decided to file a complaint against Iglesias to encourage other women to come forward.
“I think by taking legal action we are sending a message to all the victims of this person (Julio Iglesias) so that they can raise their voices and believe in justice,” he said. “So they can understand that this isn’t just something that happens to them.”
The allegations have led some left-wing politicians to call for Iglesias to be stripped of honors bestowed on him by Madrid’s city council and the regional government. Such calls were rejected by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the outspoken right-wing president of the Madrid region.
“Women in Iran are being attacked and raped by the complicit silence of the far left,” she wrote in one post. message to x. “The Madrid region will never contribute to the discrediting of artists, and even less so when it comes to Julio Iglesias, the most universal of all singers.”
On Wednesday morning, Spain’s labor minister and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, said the government was considering withdrawing the Bellas Artes medal, which the culture ministry awarded Iglesias in 2010.
Díaz denied that such a move would affect the singer’s presumption of innocence and told Spanish TV program La Hora de La 1 that there is a difference between “criminal liability” and “ethical responsibility”.
