Alex Trelinski
POLICE have prevented a young Valencia woman from being forced into an arranged marriage set up by her family.
Valencia’s Policia Local took a call on Wednesday from a woman who was hiding in a building who told them that her family was attacking and threatening her.
A patrol went to the location and the victim reported the ill-treatment she suffered in recent months.
Her family had taken away her mobile phone and stopped her from leaving their home after she refused to a marry a person she had never met.
She is currently in a stable relationship with another person.
The woman told officers that she did not want to go back home and showed them a bus ticket she had purchased to leave out of Valencia.
She asked them to accompany her because she believed her family knew she was going to the bus station to stop her travelling.
Police spoke to bus authorities to get her a place on another service and an officer accompanied her to the station where they spotted some of her relatives.
Nevertheless the woman left without them noticing her and she is safe in another city where she will file a formal complaint about what happened to her.
Valencia councillor, Jesus Carbonell, congratulated all the police officers who were involved in the operation and urged people to denounce practices that violate the human rights and dignity of every person
“We have to be especially vigilant in these situations as forced marriages are expressly prohibited in the Penal Code with a prison sentence,” said Carbonell.
