According to the news published by different media, from the 1950s to the 1990s in Spain, there was a criminal network in different hospitals all over the country devoted to stealing new-borns to give them away through illegal adoptions while informing the biological family that the baby had passed away. It was an allegedly highly profitable business, deeply rooted in Francoist and post-Francoist society. Although more than a thousand claims have been brought before Spanish tribunals, not a single case has yet been proved, and the first judgement delivered will need to be revised since new evidence has shown that it was not a child abduction but an irregular, though consented, adoption. Nevertheless, Parliament recently started discussions on an ambitious law to address these cases. In this article, the different measures adopted by the judiciary, legislative and executive branches to confront these accusations are examined, presenting the unexpected results that have been obtained thus far. In a second part, the considerable legal challenges in prosecuting the illegal conduct are addressed, namely, the conflictive characterization of such conduct according to Spanish law and the applicability of statutory limitations. The paper finishes with a critical analysis of the first judgement delivered on the matter.

中文翻译：

---

西班牙起诉“被盗婴儿”案

根据不同媒体发布的消息，从1950年代到1990年代西班牙，全国各地的医院都有一个犯罪网络，专门窃取新生儿并通过非法收养的方式将其送出，同时告知亲生家庭，宝宝已经去世了。据称，这是一项利润丰厚的业务，深深植根于佛朗哥主义和后佛朗哥主义社会。尽管已向西班牙法庭提出了超过一千项索赔，但尚未证明一个案件，而且第一次作出的判决将需要修改，因为新证据表明这不是绑架儿童而是违规行为，尽管同意，收养。尽管如此，议会最近开始讨论一项雄心勃勃的法律来解决这些案件。在本文中，司法机关采取的不同措施，立法和行政部门应对这些指控进行了审查，展示了迄今为止取得的意想不到的结果。在第二部分中，解决了起诉非法行为的相当大的法律挑战，即根据西班牙法律对此类行为的冲突定性和法定时效的适用性。论文最后对就此事作出的第一次判断进行了批判性分析。