The ultra agitator Vito Quiles, again wanted: a Madrid court maintains that he is trying to evade justice in the case for denigrating a disabled woman

Justice has again ordered the search, arrest, and presentation of ultra-agitator Vito Quiles, this time to inform him of the opening of a trial for the alleged humiliation of a woman with intellectual disability during a protest in front of the PP headquarters. The Prosecutor's Office requests two years in prison in a case that also affects Javier Negre, president of EDA TV, where the images were broadcast.

The resolution, dated October 23 and known this Monday, comes after several unsuccessful notification attempts. "Such a fact implies that said accused is trying to evade the action of Justice," the judicial body states in the order.

Plaza number 43 of the Instruction Section of the Court of Instance of Madrid demands his appearance to deliver the order for the opening of the trial, the accusation brief from the Public Prosecutor's Office, and to carry out the pending requirements. Once these procedures are completed, it orders his "immediate release," unless there is another legal cause that justifies keeping him detained.

The humiliation of a woman with a disability that goes to trial

The events date back to March 20, 2024, when Quiles approached a woman with a recognized intellectual disability of 75% during a demonstration on Génova street in Madrid. The protest demanded accountability from Isabel Díaz Ayuso for the management of nursing homes during the pandemic. The interview was broadcast on EDA TV and subsequently disseminated on social media.

The Prosecutor's Office maintains that Quiles acted "guided by the desire to denigrate" the interviewee "due to her disability and the political ideas he attributed to her." The Public Prosecutor links the dissemination of the images with the derogatory comments the woman received and with the "feelings of humiliation and unease, with impairment of her dignity" that she suffered.

The feminist organization Libres y Combativas promoted the complaint, and the opening of an oral trial against Quiles and Negre was agreed upon last April 14. The Prosecutor's Office requests one and a half years in prison for the president of EDA TV for his participation in the dissemination. The procedure refers to the injury to the woman's dignity for discriminatory reasons and it is up to the Provincial Court of Madrid to judge the facts.

Quiles had already been the subject of another arrest warrant in July, within a different case for the alleged dissemination of a hoax about a public employee, after failing to appear for court summons. That order was withdrawn when he appeared with his lawyer and made himself available to the court. The resolution known this Monday corresponds to the procedure for the images of the disabled woman.

Insults in the face of rejection in Bilbao

The judicial news coincides with the announced visit of the ultra agitator to Bilbao, where the University of Deusto has suspended its activity from 2:00 p.m. and has set the preventive closure of the campus at 3:00 p.m. The institution has explained that it acts in coordination with the Ertzaintza to protect the university community. It has also made it clear that the event is external to the university, which "does not organize or support" the act and has not authorized its celebration within the premises.

The rejection of his presence has brought students together in the streets of Bilbao and has mobilized social, youth, and trade union organizations. The ELA union had called for protests against the normalization of far-right discourses. The preventive closure of the campus has also generated institutional discrepancies. The Basque Minister of Science, Universities, and Innovation, Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, has questioned the suspension of academic activity.

Quiles has responded to the police deployment by stating that "thousands of ETA members want to burn the University of Deusto", without providing evidence in that message to support such an accusation. Afterwards, he called those who came out to protest "lazy" and "dirty" and presented the day as "an unprecedented success." His publications turn the rejection of his visit into a succession of insults and accusations against the demonstrators.

The tour has a declared electoral objective. Quiles calls for mobilization ahead of November 29 "voting en masse for the political opposition", according to the message he keeps pinned on his profile. His passage through different cities has accumulated protests and administrative actions. This Monday, the Government Delegation in Aragon has initiated the procedures to open a sanctioning file against him for the concentration he called on October 22 in the Plaza de San Francisco in Zaragoza without the required prior communication.