Record

In january 1991, Raquel Taladriz Verdes was involved in a drug traffic operation in Paris. She was arrested and imprisoned for twelve months before being judged and sentenced to ten years´ imprisonment. Eleven months later, an appeal for unlawful detention was resolved on her behalf and she was released. She came back to Spain in november 1991.

 In 1992 she was called to a second trial and she travelled to France. After the trial was held she came back to Spain waiting for the sentence to be notified. Ever since her return she has always been registered in the places where she has been living, she has renewed her Identity Card, she has obtained her driving license and she has been registered in the Social Security. During these years Raquel has formed a new family and has been leading a quiet and active life.

 In 2004, on june the 18^th, more than twelve years after the trial, the Civil Guard turned up in Raquel´s house presenting a warrant for her arrest. She was arrested and imprisoned in C.P. Soto del Real where she still remains with her young daughter. However, spanish law only allows children under three to stay in prison with their mothers and the child will turn three in november 04.

 What has Raquel been doing for the last twelve years?

-She has always been registered in the places where she has been living.

-She has been raising her eldest daughter, who is now a student and a responsible young woman.

-She has been working as a:

-         Teacher at a nursery school.

-         Carer for the elderly.

-         Therapist in an NGO.

-         Manager of a country hotel.

-She has completed training in the following areas:

-         Nursery assistant

-         Nursery school.

-         Polarity Therapist.

-         Several courses in Psychology and Sociology at degree level

-Five years ago she met a man who earns his living as a bricklayer and as a farmer. They have a child who is now a two and a half year old toddler. The little child is in prison with her mother.

-She is an active community member:

-         She is acting president in Asunaire Foundation.

-         She is a founding member of ecological consumers association “Tierra Viva”.

-         She is an active member of a local nursery project

We would like to report:

-The serious harm produced by injustified delays and inefficiency within the justice administration:

-         Separation from her seventeen year old daughter. Raquel´s imprisonment comes at a most delicate time in her young daughter´s life.

-         The inappropriateness of a young child living in jail.

-         For the spanish law only allows children under three to stay in prison with their mothers, from november 04 the little child will grow up without her mother´s care, her presence and her education.

-         Deprivation to the community of a most valuable and hard working member.

-         The moral and psychological pressure suffered by Raquel in these twelve years of waiting. The uncertainty of not knowing an end to this process.

Raquel is forty years old now. The following is an excerpt from a letter Raquel wrote to her family from prison:

… “I put all my effort into studying and working in order to bring up my daughter. I got on very slowly, always taking care that nothing bad could ever happen to me again, trying to get over the difficulties I met on the way.

The only thing I have not been able to heal so far is vertigo. I think this dizziness comes out as a result of all the fear, the injustice and the misery I went through in jail. The same I am suffering now.”…

  Because her husband and her daughters need her to carry on with their lives, because her friends and neighbours miss her and the civic associations where she´s been working want her back.

Because Spanish Constitution, says that punishment will be oriented towards social integration and not towards the destruction of a person and her family´s lives twelve years later.

WE WANT JUSTICE FOR RAQUEL

WE WANT A REPRIEVE FOR RAQUEL

We ask your signature for Raquel's retrieve

Support account to get Raquel's retrieve

If you want to make an economical contribution to pay lawyers an other charges derived of our effort to get Raquel's freedom you can transfer your contribution to the following account of  Caja Madrid: 2038 2233 35 6000315913 Please indicate the subject "Raquel's support" and as the person to recive it Francisco Ruiz, accountant of the support grupo.
Thankyou for your contribution.