The former deputy Íñigo Errejón has been indicted for an alleged crime of sexual assault against the actress Elisa Mouliaá, according to the order signed this Friday by the judge Adolfo Carretero, head of the Court of Instruction number 47 of Madrid. The resolution, which marks a new direction in the case, comes after an investigation that has been surrounded by media controversy, judicial tension and a strong social debate.
After the decision was made public, Mouliaá’s lawyer, Alfredo Arrien, celebrated the judicial advance in a conversation with EL PAÍS: “We have received it with joy. Elisa believes more and more in justice, although let’s not forget that her path has been long and tedious and the worst thing is that almost nobody outside has believed in her”. Errejón’s defense, for its part, has confirmed that it will appeal the order.
The statement of the actress, central axis of the prosecution
In his resolution, Judge Carretero points out that “in the absence of eyewitnesses to the facts and with some reference testimonies and expert evidence, the main evidence is the statement of the injured party”. The order adds that “her statement is essentially coherent, although she does not remember secondary details”.
The defense of the actress especially emphasizes that the judge gave essential value to the testimony of Mouliaá: “Her story has managed to convince a judge who is not especially the champion of feminism, far from it. And, knowing the type of profile of judge that he is, if that profile, old-fashioned, has believed it is because the circumstantial evidence and the statement were sufficient”. And he adds: “Now society has to believe her, that is the challenge for her”.
A controversial interrogation that marked the preliminary investigation
Part of the public impact of the case comes from the harsh interrogation that the actress had to face during the investigation and whose video was leaked, generating widespread social rejection and criticism of the judge. The magistrate’s questions and comments, such as “She was very drunk, are you sure?”, “He said to her: ‘leave me alone?'”, “it is not understood that you did not make a gesture” or “you are a woman used to dealing with the public, how are you not able to tell her that those conditions were not acceptable?”, provoked protests from the feminist movement and even a disciplinary file that was filed a month ago.
The night of the events: the testimony of the complainant
According to Mouliaá’s account, everything happened in September 2021, when the two attended a party together after a presentation of Errejón’s book. The actress states that the politician
The judge held that the victim “before the facts, had no spurious motive, enmity, hatred or revenge”, that “her statement is essentially coherent” and that “the delay in the complaint is a fact to be taken into account, but does not imply that it is false”. According to Mouliaá’s statement, she delayed in filing the complaint because of “fear of the personality of the accused and only when she saw that other women were commenting on similar facts in the media”.
From politics to the criminal case: the context of the Errejón case
The prosecution comes at a complex time for the former leader of Podemos and Más Madrid. In October 2024, Errejón left politics after allegations of inappropriate behavior with several women. Then he said he was immersed in “a personal process and psychological support” and acknowledged that he had “reached the limit of the contradiction between the character and the person”.
In that statement he also expressed that “the pace and way of life in the political front line, for a decade, has worn out my physical health, my mental health and my emotional and affective structure”. Days later, Mouliaá filed the complaint that today supports the prosecution.
