Former minister and MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar has stated this Friday that he will testify "voluntarily" before the Supreme Court regarding the alleged mistreatment of his ex-wife. He did so in a statement issued to the media a day after it became known that the prosecutor of the Supreme Court has reported in favor of opening a procedure to elucidate the facts, considering that from the police investigations "the existence of a crime in the field of gender violence is indicatively deduced".
In his statement, the former minister reaffirms his "complete innocence" and maintains that the events he has been accused of are "totally false". López Aguilar refers to the two fires that occurred in the house where his ex-wife and minor children reside, as a result of which a police investigation was subsequently initiated for alleged mistreatment, when the agents collected information among the neighbors. As he did when the news broke, the former minister reiterates that he was "outside the home" and "absent from the island" at "the time of the events".
The former minister stresses that these two police interventions took place for reasons for which he has "no responsibility". López Aguilar also states that he was "at all times unaware of these events", whose knowledge, he says, was "subtracted and hidden by all its protagonists, including the Police". "I have full confidence in being able to prove my innocence", he adds in his statement, in which he also emphasizes his "rejection of all forms of gender violence".
"Immense damage to the right to privacy"
On the other hand, the MEP assures that these accusations have caused "immense damage" to his "fundamental right to personal and family privacy", as well as to his minor children.
"I am responsible for my public actions and I claim my right to underline the pain that this exposure of false facts produces in my presumption of innocence, sure of proving it, and also, and above all, against the rights of my young children", he adds in his statement.
López Aguilar was suspended from membership as a precautionary measure by the Socialist Party after the case was reported in the press on April 7. Days later, the Group of the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament also temporarily removed him as a result of these events.
