The ultra agitator Vito Quiles loses the person who had become the visible face of his defense as he accumulates seven criminal fronts in different courts. Juango Ospina has left the active practice of law to join as ambassador of Colombia to Belgium and Luxembourg and head of mission to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The criminal lawyer will move to Brussels and begin his new diplomatic stage on October 5. The relief comes at an especially delicate moment for Quiles, with proceedings for slander, revelation of secrets, harassment, coercion, hate crimes, and two possible frauds. One of the cases is already on its way to trial and the Provincial Court of Madrid has just imposed a restraining order on him.
Ospina's departure adds to the definitive withdrawal of Quiles' press accreditation in Congress, agreed this same week after more than a dozen sanctions. The Chamber considers a repeated conduct of interruptions, recordings in prohibited places, and actions that hindered the work of deputies and journalists to be accredited.
Ospina had publicly appeared as the agitator's lawyer in several of his judicial problems, although he never appeared in the case for slander against Rubén Sánchez, general secretary of FACUA-Consumers in Action. The lawyer announced an appeal against the indictment order and even spoke of seeking an agreement to avoid trial, but the brief was never filed and the resolution eventually became final.
Processed for slander and with a restraining order
The procedure promoted by Rubén Sánchez is one of the most advanced. The judge considers that there are "clear indications" that Quiles acted with the purpose of "vexing, offending and vilifying" the FACUA leader through publications in which he attributed crimes such as pedophilia, pimping, extortion, fraud, and death threats.
The private prosecution requests nine years in prison for three continuous crimes of slander with the aggravating circumstance of ideological hatred, compensation of 60,000 euros, and his disqualification from carrying out activities related to journalism for the duration of the sentence. EDATV appears in the procedure as a possible subsidiary civil liability.
Quiles is also under investigation for the accusations he spread against an official of the Ministry of Labor. He presented him as an advisor to Yolanda Díaz who had been convicted of sexual assault, had been released from prison thanks to the then vice president, and had subsequently obtained a position in the Ministry. The official maintains that these statements are false and is claiming 50,000 euros from him for the personal and professional damages caused.
The agitator failed to appear for two summonses in this procedure, which led the judge to order his arrest to ensure his appearance. The measure was withdrawn after he went to the Plaza de Castilla courts and testified as a defendant. Quiles defended that he had several sources and denied any intention of slandering the complainant.
The case promoted by Sarah Santaolalla has been reopened after the Provincial Court corrected the dismissal agreed by the court. The magistrates appreciate "criminal indications that must be investigated" for possible coercion and have prohibited Quiles from approaching within 500 meters of the political analyst's home or contacting her outside the professional sphere while pending statements are taken.
To that procedure is added the investigation for the complaint by Beatriz Corredor, president of Redeia and former socialist minister. Quiles disseminated the street and photographs of her home after the April 2025 blackout and called for protests to be organized in front of the house. The complaint attributes possible crimes of disclosure of secrets and harassment to him, while his defense maintains that the data was already public and demands the dismissal of the case.
A trial for denigrating a woman and two possible scams
The most compromised procedural situation is in the case of a woman with a 75% intellectual disability whom Quiles interviewed during a protest in front of the national headquarters of the Popular Party. The Provincial Court of Madrid will have to try the ultra agitator and Javier Negre, owner of EDATV, for the subsequent dissemination of those images.
The Prosecutor's Office maintains that Quiles acted with "intent to denigrate" the affected person due to her disability and the political ideas he attributed to her. The Public Prosecutor's Office requests two years in prison and five years of disqualification from practicing journalism for crimes against dignity and moral integrity. For Negre, it requests one and a half years in prison for allowing the broadcast and dissemination of the content.
Renfe keeps another front open for an alleged crime of fraud. The public company documented at least 17 trips in which Quiles would have bought tickets to cover only part of the journey, although he remained on the train until Madrid. It also accuses him of occupying higher category seats and using VIP lounges without authorization. The provisional economic damage amounts to 850 euros.
The seventh procedure is still pending a Seville court's decision on whether to admit the complaint filed by the Prosecutor's Office for possible fraud in the collection of donations. The investigation arose from a complaint by FACUA about the amounts requested to deliver toys to children affected by the DANA in Valencia, finance scholarships for young people, and sustain Quiles' digital project.
The Prosecutor's Office considers that there is "unequivocal" data on actions that could be criminal and requests an investigation into how much money was raised and what its destination was. Contributions for social purposes and those intended to finance Quiles' activity ended up, according to the complaint, in the same personal bank account and without a clear identification of each donation. The court must now decide whether to formally open the case.
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