Spanish prosecutors drop sexual assault complaint against Julio Iglesias

Spanish state prosecutors said on Friday they were shelving an initial investigation into accusations of sexual assault by Julio Iglesias in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, after concluding that Spain’s National Court lacked jurisdiction to judge the matter.

Earlier this month, Spanish prosecutors had opened an investigation into allegations that the Grammy-winning singer had sexually assaulted two former employees at his residences in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.

Iglesias denied the accusations, writing on social media that: “With deep sorrow, I respond to the accusations made by two people who previously worked at my home. I deny having abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness.”

The two women had presented a complaint to the Spanish court earlier this month, according to Women’s Link Worldwide, a nongovernmental organisation that represents them.

The group said that the women were accusing Iglesias of “crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity such as sexual harassment” and of “human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour and servitude”.

The women also said Iglesias regularly checked their mobile phones, barred them from leaving his house and demanded that they work up to 16 hours a day, with no contract or days off.

When the complaint was filed in Spain, the organisation said it had not approached authorities in the Bahamas or the Dominican Republic and did not know whether investigations had begun in those countries.

Iglesias, 82, has been among the world’s most successful singers in the decades since his 1969 debut album Yo Canto. He has sold more than 300 million records in more than a dozen languages.

After making his start in Spain, Iglesias won immense popularity in the US and wider world in the 1970s and 1980s, partly thanks to duets with US artists including Willie Nelson and Diana Ross.

He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 and in 1988 won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance for his album Un Hombre Solo. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2019.

He is the father of pop star Enrique Iglesias.