Alleged victim set to become first person sent to prison over Spain’s Franco-era baby-snatching case

AN alleged victim of the Spanish Franco-era baby-snatching scandal is set to be the first person to go to jail in connection with the incident.

Ascension Lopez was found guilty of slander in 2015 after reportedly claiming that a nun, Sister Dolores Baena, acted as an intermediary in her sale from a hospital to her adoptive parents in Almeria in 1964.

As a result of the ruling, Lopez was ordered to pay a €3,000 fine, €40,000 in damages and also now faces five months in prison, according to her petition page on change.org

More than 90,000 people have signed the petition against the 53-year-old’s prison sentence, but she was reportedly informed last week that her pardon plea had been turned down.

According to reports, Ms Lopez has claimed that she was bought for 250,000 pesetas by her father, a senior figure in the Franco regime in Almeria, via Sister Dolores Baena in 1964.

No one has yet stood trial for the alleged stealing of children or falsifying documents.