An elderly Spanish doctor escaped punishment on Monday in the country's first "stolen babies" trial, despite a court finding him guilty of taking a newborn baby from her mother for illegal adoption under the Franco dictatorship.
The Madrid court ruled that Eduardo Vela had seized Ines Madrigal from her biological mother in 1969, but said he could not be legally convicted because she waited too long to file a complaint against him.
Madrigal, now 49, is one of thousands of babies removed from their mothers -- who were told their children had died -- and adopted during and after General Francisco Franco's 1939-1975 rule, in what became a nationwide scandal.
Speaking at the court after the ruling Madrigal said the verdict was "bittersweet".
It's "a way of saying -- we recognise this but we're not going to stick our neck out for this", she said, adding that the guilty verdict was nevertheless a "milestone at a European level".
Doctors played a major part in the scheme to provide infertile couples -- preferably those close to the regime -- with stolen newborns, often with the help of the Catholic Church.
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