Director of Health charged for the illegal detention of students in Mallorca

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The Director of Health has been charged for the illegal detention of students in Mallorca.
The Director General of Public Health of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Maria Antonia Font, will have to testify over the alleged crime of illegally detaining the young students after the outbreak in Spain’s Mallorca. It is claimed that the director allegedly illegally detained the students when their confinement was ordered.
Font has been summoned before the courts and is expected appear in September due to the complaint filed by a group of parents of the students who were detained. The students were confined on June 25 after an order was issued earlier that morning. The order was issued by the Socialist government led by Francina Armengol. They made the decision to isolate the students who were on a school trip to Mallorca.
The confinement order was signed by Font and gave police forces permission to carry out the “forced confinement” of 180 students who were on holiday in Mallorca, and who were enjoying their end-of-year trip. The government reacted after a series of positive cases were linked to school trips carried out across Spain. The outbreak affected around 1,800 youngsters across the country. The outbreak also spread across 11 of Spain’s autonomous communities.
Many of the young people who were affected by the confinement order refused to be transferred to a hotel which the government had rented. The government expected the students to remain in confinement at the hotel and undergo PCR tests too.
According to El Mundo, Font along with legal services belonging to government put together the order which meant that police could transfer the students and confine them at the Bellver hotel. The hotel has four stars and costs the government 300,000 euros each month.
Many of the parents fought back against the order. They unsuccessfully requested that the students were released by appealing to ‘habeas corpus’. They have now filed a lawsuit against the alleged illegal detention. Multiple cases were filed at the course of Palma and these will be brought together in one case in front of the 12th Court of Instruction.
One parent considers that the confinement order was a “witchhunt”. Some of the students allegedly had not been in close contact with a positive person and had only just arrived on the island. The government however defends the actions and believes that they did not violate the rights of the students, as the health of the public was at risk.


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Alex
Written by

Alex Glenn

Originally from the UK, Alex is based in Almeria and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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