The Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has filed a complaint in court this week against the playwright Ramón Paso for alleged sexual crimes against several young women between 18 and 25 years old, which would have taken place between 2018 and 2023.
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As reported to EFE by the lawyer Luisa Estévez Martínez, who represents 14 women who have denounced the screenwriter and stage director to the Prosecutor’s Office, and confirmed by sources in the case, the complaint from the public ministry is in the deanery of the courts of instruction from Madrid awaiting delivery.
The Prosecutor’s Office has taken this step after completing the pre-procedural proceedings that it opened in November of last year and taking statements from the 14 women, who have ratified, one by one, their complaint against the theater director, grandson of the playwright Alfonso Paso and great-grandson of the writer. Enrique Jardiel Poncela.
Sexual assault and harassment, harassment and coercion
According to lawyer Luisa Estévez, the Prosecutor’s Office includes in its complaint alleged crimes of sexual assault – in some cases in its continuous form – as well as crimes of sexual harassment and harassment, against moral integrity and coercion.
The lawyer specifies that most of the complainants, but not all, were victims of actions that would fall within the spectrum included in the Penal Code – after the reform of what is known as the ‘yes means yes law’ – for sexual assaults.
The sources of the case consulted by Europa Press advise that, at the moment, the matter is pending distribution in the Madrid Courts. Once the investigating judge is appointed, he will be the one to determine whether or not to admit the document of the Public Prosecutor’s Office against Ramón Paso.
Castings between 2018 and 2023
The reported events would have occurred between 2018 and 2023, always related to the theatrical activity of Paso, the sources point out. According to them, the conduct indicated by the Public Ministry would have taken place within the framework of castings in which the playwright and the alleged victims participated.
It was Estévez who brought the facts to the attention of the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office last year. The Public Ministry took a statement from the lawyer as a witness and then collected the testimonies of 14 women who confirmed the complaint.
According to the lawyer, the Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to taking statements, has received documentary evidence related to the reported events, as well as expert reports from parties that would corroborate the women’s version and psychological reports.
On April 10, the Public Ministry decreed the conclusion of its pre-procedural proceedings and agreed to file a complaint before the Madrid Courts, an event that took place this Tuesday.
Pepe Viyuela abandons the work
The actor Pepe Viyuela has decided to abandon ‘Jardiel in love’, the play in which he plays the writer Enrique Jardiel Poncela and directed by Ramón Paso, after hearing the news. “I was shocked. I am nervous. I do not think in another thing. “I am shocked,” Viyuela explained in statements to Europa Press shortly after learning that the Public Ministry has directed the complaint to the Dean of Courts of Madrid after having completed some pre-procedural proceedings in which he took statements from 14 victims – aged between 18 and 25 years old – who confirmed their complaint at the tax office.
Pepe Viyuela, who until now starred at the Infanta Isabel Theater in Madrid in the play written and directed by Ramón Paso, has assured that he has not spoken with the playwright. “I don’t want to call him. I don’t want to continue with the show. “I’m leaving,” he stressed, later clarifying that Paso is not his friend.
After the actor’s announcement, the theater and the production companies held an emergency meeting and issued a statement ensuring that they were completely unaware of the facts and expressed themselves “absolutely surprised and dismayed” since they learned the news. They have expressed their solidarity with the victims and assume “the responsibility we have as exhibitors, producers, performers, cultural workers to contribute in this way to raising awareness and stopping this scourge, as well as creating a safe space in theater”.
The SGAE asks for measures
For its part, the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) has requested “exemplary measures” in the face of any situation of sexual harassment, after learning of the complaint against Ramón Paso, an attitude that the Union of Actors and Actresses also condemns. “On previous similar occasions, we have expressed our total rejection of the sexual abuse suffered by women in the field of creation,” SGAE sources have reported to EFE, which has recalled that it has always demanded that public and private institutions , from the field of culture that “adopt exemplary measures to prevent these situations of sexist violence.”
“We are unaware of this case, but we are against any situation of harassment, violence or sexual assault against women in any area,” SGAE sources have stated. At the same time, the management entity points out in a statement that it has launched an Equality Group. “It is essential for the equal coexistence of our society and for the freedom of creation that women are supported, not only by our fellow creators, but also by the organizations that must ensure the total eradication of abuses of power, generally masculine, in the work environment,” he says.
For its part, the Union of Actors and Actresses has highlighted to EFE the idea that they maintain “zero tolerance for these cases” and request the safeguarding of the privacy of the attacked person. The organization that represents actors and actresses points out that in the sector’s collective agreements there are measures that seek to put limits on these situations. However, they are aware that tools and protocols must continue to be created and improved to “eliminate impunity for these acts and guarantee that victims have reporting channels” and they encourage any actress who suffers violence or harassment to report it. .
